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http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/12/28/more_farmers_markets_open_in_winter/

More farmers markets open in winter
Now customers aim to eat local food year-round


PLYMOUTH — A steady stream of customers filled baskets and shopping
bags with vegetables, cranberries, cheese, fresh-baked breads, and
pies while chatting with the dozen or so farmers selling goods in the
visitor’s center of a local museum.

It was a bitterly cold, gray December day, but for many, it felt just
right for the farmers market as live music and a warm fireplace helped
set a holiday mood.

A growing number of farmers markets are extending their operation into
and through the winter months, even in cold weather states like
Massachusetts. The markets are expanding as more farmers prolong their
growing seasons with greenhouses and other methods.

It is also fueled by an increased number of people who try to eat
locally produced food year-round.

“It can’t be a five-month-long thing and then just stop and everybody
go to Wal-Mart,’’ said Dave Purpura, a farmer who participates in the
winter market at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum dedicated
to the Pilgrims. “If you want to be serious about promoting the local
food economy, you have to go through the winter.’’

Purpura planted some vegetables late in the season specifically for
sale at the winter market.

Nearby, Donna Blischke sold potatoes, onions, and squash that she
stores in a root cellar at her small organic farm in Carver. The
winter market also gives her a chance to sell jams, jellies, and
sauces made from produce left over from the fall harvest.

“It’s a way to earn a little extra money in the winter months, while
still providing local foods,’’ Blischke said.

There are at least 898 winter farmers markets running nationwide, a 17
percent increase from two years ago, according to the US Department of
Agriculture. A winter market is defined as one that operates between
November and March.

Winter markets often run less frequently than their summer
counterparts; the Plymouth Farmers Market, for example, runs weekly
from June through October and monthly from December through March.

Perhaps surprisingly, several Northern states are among those with the
most winter markets, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Michigan, the USDA said.

Chicago’s Green City Market expanded to year-round operations three
years ago and draws an estimated 60,000 visitors in winter months,
said Lyle Allen, the market’s executive director.

He recalled his anxiety before the first January opening.

“It was 2 degrees, and the wind chill was 40 below,’’ Allen said. “I
was worried. We were concerned about what kind of reaction we were
going to get from the general public.’’

His fears evaporated when he showed up at the museum where some 35 to
40 farmers set up shop twice a month in the winter.

“There were a thousand people waiting to get in,’’ he said.

The trend toward year-round markets fits in with overall growth in
farmers markets. The number nationwide grew 16 percent from 2009 to
more than 6,100 nationwide this year, according to the USDA’s 2010
farmers market directory.

Year-round markets tend to do better. A USDA survey found markets that
operated for more than seven months in a year had three times the
amount of sales revenue per month.