Indy Winter Farmers Market

These five Central Indiana farmers markets have the goods.

Though the unseasonal weather outside didn’t exactly feel like winter, Saturday marked the opening of the 2012-13 Indy Winter Farmers Market at the Platform, the newly renamed west wing of City Market. Market goers were treated not just to the harvest’s best produce and some of central Indiana’s finest farm products, but they also got to see the renovation of the once-barebones space with new partitions and rustic wood walls. It’s a collaboration of the City of Indianapolis and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) that is helping to revitalize the City Market complex, making it the home of such organizations as Growing Places Indy, The Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc., and the Winter Market. With former City Market food vendors relocated to other parts of the market, shoppers had more space to mill about, with a few vendors spilling out into the courtyard along Market Street. Among new vendors to the market this year is Brownsburg-based Petit Pain, offering up baguettes and their signature blue cheese and walnut boule, all prepared by artisan baker Mark Brouwer. Be sure to stop in next week to get your sweet potatoes, squash, Brussels sprouts, and meats for your Thanksgiving table. A full list of this year’s vendors can be found at https://www.indywinterfarmersmarket.org/vendor-list.   

“I really feel like my personal mission in life is directly tied to the work that I do,” Henderson says. “My job is to empower individuals and communities to grow well, eat well, live well, and be well.”

Gorgeous beets of several varieties (the goldens get snapped up fast), ice cream from Lick, crepes from 3 Days in Paris, lettuces of every stripe, fresh eggs, sausages from Smoking Goose (alas, the bacon sold out early, save for the lamb variety), bright Brussels sprouts, bison steaks from Circle L Bison Farm and, oh goodness, just about everything else you might want to eat was on offer this weekend at the Indy Winter Farmers Market, enjoying its inaugural Saturday in the west wing of the City Market. The Star had some great photos of the bin action. But our favorite discovery of the week were the colorful and super-delicious breakfast boxes from Fermenti Artisan: local eggs, veggies, cheese (goat, from Capriole), and sausage griddled up hot, topped with bright Fermenti kraut, and served in a Chinese-food takeout container.