When a Farmers Market Is More Than a Place to Shop
Every spring, long before the first farmers market tent goes up, we are planning for you.
You may not think about us every day, but truthfully, we think about feeding you every day.
While winter still lingers, we’re ordering seed, planning pasture rotations, booking meat processing dates months ahead, starting plants in the greenhouse, managing freezer inventory, and making decisions that directly affect how we provide for our family.
And many of those decisions are made with farmers market season in mind.
This year has been a reminder of how much faith farming requires.
We had been planning for a new Friday market in La Crosse, in addition to Saturdays in Viroqua and every other Sunday in Onalaska. Raising inventory, making crop plans, and looking forward to a fresh start in a location that felt safe, vibrant and full of possibility. As often happens in farming (and in life), those plans have shifted at the eleventh hour.
That uncertainty is hard.
For a small family farm, markets aren’t just events on a calendar. They help determine what we grow, what we raise, how we budget, and quite literally how we feed our own family.
But farmers markets are also much more than a sales outlet for farms like ours.
They are infrastructure for small farms. They are launchpads for local makers and small business incubators, often giving people their very first affordable place to test an idea, build a customer base, and grow something meaningful. Many beloved local food businesses began under a market tent.
They keep dollars circulating locally. They create access to fresh food. They strengthen rural and urban connections. And they create community in a way few other places can.
A farmers market is never just tomatoes, jam, flowers and pork chops.
It is neighbors running into each other.
Kids learning where food comes from.
Someone new in town finding a sense of belonging.
A family building dinner from food grown by people they know.
And my favorite part, learning from the farmer the best way to prepare the market goods.
It is local economy and community woven together.
And for farmers like me, it is often one of the most direct and meaningful ways we connect with the people we feed.
That’s why uncertainty around markets matters. When a market shifts or disappears, it affects more than a Friday afternoon plan, it ripples through farms, makers, customers, and the local businesses that benefit from those people gathering together.
But here’s what I keep coming back to:
Farmers know how to adapt.
We always have.
Weather changes. Markets change. Plans change.
And we keep planting.
Whatever shape this season takes, whether the market starts later, moves locations, or looks different than expected — we’re still showing up.
Because we’ve already planted the strawberries.
The pork is in the freezer.
The jam is on the shelves.
The beef is at the butcher.
The work is underway.
And we’re doing it with you in mind.
Thank you for supporting small farms through all the uncertainty that often stays invisible.
You may not think about your farmers every day.
But we’re thinking about you.
Every day.
We will be at the Viroqua Farmers Market on Saturday mornings 8-12:30 WTC parking lot starting May 2nd, 2026 and every other Sunday morning 8-1 Ashley Furniture Parking lot starting May 17th. I will keep you update on what happens with Friday nights in La Crosse.
— Darci