Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this October 14, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here.
In part two today, we're going to have Fontana and Audrey join us.
Two of the Miss Wisconsin Rapids Teen contestants for the Miss Wisconsin
Rapids Teen contest coming up looking forward to talking with them.
Right now in the studio, we have our good friend Reverend Beth Habhager with us.
Reverend Beth is always good to see you.
Good to see you too.
And Mike Barnes is with us.
Mike, good to see you.
Good to see you.
They're here today to talk about the Winchers Farmer's Market.
We're going to dive into that looking forward to it and certainly looking forward
to having the Winchers Farmer's Market back.
But if you don't mind, I'd like to rewind for a second.
You guys wrapped up your community book sale this past week.
And how did that go?
It went extremely well.
We did not have as many books donated this year as we have in the past.
So there weren't credits that needed to go.
But we still were able to raise just under $2,500 toward scholarships.
So we were very grateful.
And thank you to the community who came out to support this, those that donated books.
And if you're interested in donating next year, because we got that question a lot,
as people will have the book been back out Memorial Day weekend,
and we'll be collecting throughout the summer.
So if you're getting, you know, as you're thinking about Christmas,
and maybe needing to thin out your bookshelves, get a box, set it aside,
and then mark for Moravian Church, and bring it to us next year.
As my mother would like to note to everybody, this, if you get rid of old books,
it means you can get new ones.
Exactly.
You can replace.
So there you go.
It's as some people are doing some fall cleaning and things.
That's a good note, Beth.
You know, hey, keep this in mind in the back of your head.
You know, had that cardboard box set and ready to go when Memorial Day weekend comes up.
Right.
And one of the exciting things are the books that we haven't been able to sell
we're finding second lives for.
So our religious and inspirational section will be going to Saint James and
Kelner for their book sale.
That's a part of there was, I think it's up as are coming up later this month.
All of the children's books have been boxed up and will be taken over to the food pantry.
And will be given away to children who come for that.
So they will get a second life.
So we're also connecting with Mary's place and they're going to come over and
choose some books to take over for their residents as well.
That's wonderful to hear.
And, you know, especially I know that you guys have had this for a little while.
But so much of it is still evolving and developing.
So, you know, the next year when we get together to talk about this,
I'd love the idea of hearing even more opportunities for these books that may not
get sold for them to go somewhere.
Absolutely.
It's such a cool thing.
And of course, all of this is done to help raise funds for a mid-state and in scholarships.
And our scholarship that was awarded this last year went to a nursing student again.
So these non-traditional scholarships are helping people get a second career or
new life in their career.
Which is putting into an industry that needs it and deserves it.
And certainly these individuals may go on to be in our communities to, you know, do
use these services and everything.
It is a full-circle win-win-win kind of situation.
And now we're shifting and getting ready to transition our basement from the book sale
to the winter market that's coming up.
Yeah.
Looking forward to diving into this one.
If you guys don't mind though, I am a little bit of a history nerd.
I love to go into the origin stories and the histories of these things.
And when it comes to the Whitsers Farmers Market, it's got quite an interesting one.
Do we get into the history of this a little bit?
Well, the winner's farmer's market was not operating for a number of years before.
The Wisconsin Rapids Convention Bureau decided to do some testing to see the viability
of the winner's market in this area.
You know, people continue to want to get farmer's markets kind of things in the winter,
but you had to add some place to hold it.
You can't just park it out in the parking lot anymore.
It's a little bit chilly.
Yeah.
So they did that at the end of the pandemic, near the end of the pandemic.
They had some space available to them and they did that.
It was small, but they saw that it was viable.
They could sort of as a demonstration that it would work.
They put out the word, of course, they eventually lost the space
because it was going to go back to being used as a business.
And so they put out the word to the community.
They approached several people looking for space and somebody willing
and interested in running a winter's farmer's market.
We were the ones that said, yeah, it's I.
We'll do it, you know.
It's partly as a fundraiser for the church to help keep the doors open.
I mean, and to use space that sits unused anyway for something good for the community.
And so we took it on.
This will be now our third year.
It takes a while to grow these things.
People don't readily think of a farmer's market in the winter.
So that getting people to come to the farmer's market,
and then not every kind of vendor is available in the winter
as is available in the summer.
You know, we don't have a lot of people with produce in the winter.
That's a little bit more difficult.
But we're trying to build something that's fun, a place that people like to come to.
They can meet their friends as well as get some of the locally produced
and locally grown items, you know, things like bakery and in the middle of the winter
to chickens are still laying eggs and things like that.
So we took it on and we're growing.
And we're hoping to grow it some more this year to make it even more fun,
more interesting to people so that they want to come on Saturday morning.
And it's exciting because it's not just the produce and egg.
It's also vendors.
So local people who are trying to maybe earn a little extra money or creative.
We've got booze that have sold soap and popcorn and all sorts of things there.
So right.
And we have, you know, there are vendors that do things like crass.
And they tend to be more centered around times when people are interested
in buying gifts as well as other things like that.
So we have a variety of vendors and it's our goal and our working towards
to try to continue to expand the variety of vendors and the number of vendors
so that, you know, you come down and see what's cooking.
You know, and Mike, to your point about taking time to build these things,
we talk about this a lot with individuals to come in with events.
We had the, the gang from Bluegrass at the lake in early, but in those days
before and they're just building it and everything.
You see what that is now.
Dovesness is another great one where they joined us right before that.
They even had a building, they even had a house yet or joining us.
And you see where that has grown.
This community supports these kind of things.
And when they find something they like, they keep coming back to it.
You mentioned the growing this that, you know, the type of vendor that's out there,
growing the information to the consumer.
It's just as important to get the information out there to vendors
and the possible of that and certainly encourage people to spread the word about this event
not only for our consumers out there in our community,
but anybody that could be a possible vendor.
Because it's, it's, it's gives a unique opportunity with a Winters Farmer market
where you, in some ways you might have less vendors, opportunities,
and at the same time might have more with some of the crafting that you mentioned there and everything.
These farmers markets, whether they're Winters, Summer, whatever season they are,
they're a huge part of our society now because they support such a backbone of our communities,
such a backbone of our state, whether it's ag industry or the crafting industry or anything like that.
Well, it's a wonderful way for the community to get together.
And at the Moravian Church, we really want to be seen as part of the community.
And we love to have our doors open and welcome people to come.
Not just check us out, but these other events that we're able to offer
so that you can see and meet your neighbors because it's a wonderful safe space to do that.
Well, and it's you guys stepping up too.
I think that that's noteworthy.
And it's coming from a me just looking at it from a third perspective
and everything, whether it's this or it's the community book sale or something like that.
Things that if I can be blunt, we might not have otherwise.
They could have gone away.
We still have them because you guys stepped up, because the church stepped up.
And not for nothing too, there's not a lot of places that have that kind of space.
So even taking that and saying, hey, well, we got all this space.
Why we've been raising your hand and being a part of this.
Not a lot of people will do that.
A lot of some people just kept their hand down.
I think it's noteworthy that you guys stepped up on this one.
And the community has supported that too and shown that.
The Winters and Farmers of the Markets have been successful in the couple of years.
You guys have done this from what I've heard and seen.
And that wouldn't have happened without Mike.
Mike has really found a passion for this outreach from our congregation.
So thank you, Mike, for coordinating all of this for us.
Certainly.
Do you guys take any, I don't know if it's noteworthy or not,
but I know that the Summer's Market, the Winters and Farmers Market,
two separate people running these things and everything.
But do you take any influence from each other?
I know talking with, we had them in last week and they're saying that they really enjoy
what you guys do and really support and wanted to get behind it.
We're looking forward to the details and everything about it.
Yeah, certainly the Wood County runs the Summer Farmers Market.
I work with her.
In fact, I just talked to her last week.
They said they have some new vendors this year.
So I'm going to send them over to me.
And of course, they will put on their site my postings and vice versa.
We try to find new ideas or some of the things they do that I'm looking at
if I can figure out how to make them work at our market.
We'll certainly incorporate them that help makes it easier and makes it better.
Yeah, we're so much stronger together, you know, with these things.
And whether, you know, Beth and I, we've gotten together to talk about grace before
and the work there with churches coming together.
Terry John, CEO of the United Way, and I have talked a lot about nonprofits working together
in this community. These things stand out.
And I think they are a great example to the rest of the states, the rest of the Midwest,
of what happens when we work together and how much stronger we are when we work together.
Absolutely.
What are the details?
Do we have the opening night?
Do we have the details for this yet?
The opening day is going to be October 26th.
Hey.
9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and we will run all the way through till December 21.
There's actually going to be sort of a themed session this year.
The fall session where we focus on things of fall.
You know, it could be pumpkins.
It could be, you know, pumpkin pies, whatever.
All I heard was pumpkin pies.
That's all I heard.
Then there's going to be a short holiday session.
And we will have an event at the holiday session.
I talked to someone we're going to have Santa at the market again.
That was very popular.
Some of the craft vendors who focus in on some of the holidays, they like to come to that
those times when we're around the holiday that they would have specific crafts for.
So then we'll take a little break after the 21st of December.
And we'll pick up again on January 18th after people's kind of gotten over the hangover
of Christmas and the new years.
And we'll start again.
So January 18th, and so we'll have a longer what I call winter session that will run from
January 18th to March 29th.
At that point, we're going to transition into a spring session.
At our spring session, last year we experimented with and we're going to continue to experiment
with the changing weather.
We've been seeing some earlier times that it's been warm out.
So during that session, if it's a little warmer, the vendors will actually set up
in the parking lot. They like that.
Sort of getting ready for the summer season, what it's like to be out in the summer season.
So that's kind of how we're doing this.
So is the way of making payments.
And people might be familiar with the way that you do in the summer.
At a summer's farmer market, is there any differences with that as far as making payments
with vendors and purchasing items and stuff?
As far as customers buying stuff from the vendors.
Yeah, they bring cash or they have the cards now.
Every vendor is probably different, I'm sure.
But something to keep in mind for the audience out there.
Right. Well, so I have not established it yet, but I'm going to try to figure out that market
bucks. The summer market runs a thing where you buy from them tokens that can be then
cashed in with the vendors. I'm going to see if we can do something like that.
And most things, you know, a lot of details involved that.
Oh, yeah. But we're working on that.
You know, some of the programs that are at the winter or summer market
would not be available with it from us because they're focused on buying produce,
locally grown produce, and with certain programs.
So those wouldn't necessarily be viable.
But, you know, we are investigating those those things.
Very cool.
Either any other differences between the people should keep in mind when it is approaching
a summer market to a winter farmer's market.
Certainly, we touched on the different vendors and some of that in the location being inside.
That's something else to keep in mind.
But otherwise, you know, pretty much a farmer's market, what you would expect.
Right. Right. So, you know, it's going to be cash and many of the vendors do take
credit cards on their own.
And, you know, so that's available.
They're able to run their machines inside.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
You heard the dates and some of the details from my care.
But we also want to know as well that, you know, anything can happen.
And certainly, life has its curve balls that it throws to us and everything.
So there is a possibility of closing to keep in mind with this too.
Right. And we try to connect with the local stations and TV
if it's to the weather's too bad, we will cancel the market.
And we will also put that out on our Facebook page.
And that Facebook page is WR Winter Farmers Market.
And you will be live on there or make sure that there's a message there to let people know
that we will not be happening if the weather is that bad.
If people are familiar with the kind of stomping grounds over there,
as far as parking and that, how would that work?
Well, we are right beside the old Tribune building.
So there is parking on both sides of Goggins.
We have parking at the church itself.
In fact, we have nice new black top.
So it is not nearly as treacherous for the winter this winter as it has been in the past.
And we do have permission to use the parking lot across Goggins
behind the old Tribune building.
So it's easy to get to us.
We do have an elevator.
So the basement is accessible for all abilities and a wonderful new ramp to be able to get in.
So it should not be an issue to be able to get into the building
and to get down to where the market is.
I brought it up just so we could talk about the new parking lot.
Just so we can mention that and shout out to the workers over there.
And everybody worked on that one.
We will certainly keep you up to date.
If there are any closings, we'll be letting you know right here at this station.
You can be sure of that.
When we talk about vendors, we've touched on this a little bit.
The type of vendors that can take advantage of something like this and really use this space.
Is it really one come one all?
You know, is there a type of vendor that would work really well for something like this?
If you're listening out there, we want you to be a part of it.
Well, certainly.
We don't want flea markets.
So people that are coming to sell their garage sale items necessarily.
But you know, things that have been produced
preferably locally, but not exclusively.
We do have what's called direct sell vendors.
People who sell things that they're reselling as manufacturers reps, so to speak.
But we do want to focus on locally grown, locally produced items.
So for instance, one of our, one of our more consistent vendors has been
Wisconsin Waterfall soaps.
Jeff makes his own soaps down on his basins.
And he's grown quite a bit.
He's got a wide variety of soaps.
We have a baker, too easy bakering bakery.
Elizabeth, the bakes her stuff at the Presbyterian Church in Arpan there.
She's quite popular.
She's one of the big pushers of this because she needs a place to sell her goods in the winter.
You know, she runs several tables in the summer.
But you know, she needs somewhere to sell her goods to the customers that want to see her.
We have some new bakers that will be coming into the market.
Some sourdough baking people and things like that.
So, you know, it's sort of that kind of thing.
Then there's people that make crafts,
stone crafts.
There's people that sow things, make bull coosies,
and not paddles.
Glasses, cups, and things like that.
Jewelry.
So, there's a variety of crafts.
These are all produced by people here in town.
And a great place to go, Christmas shopping.
Oh, that's an indeed place, maybe, to go Christmas shopping.
Instead of checking out Etsy, check out the winter market.
Yeah, a lot of the purpose of Etsy was to buy local and support local.
Here you go.
You can do it in person.
You can actually just, you know, cut out the middleman.
No shipping and handling on that.
That's right.
It'll be right there.
You take it home with you.
Yeah, yeah.
And certainly, as I say this, I really want to make sure
they had home, buying local, supporting local.
This is a popular phrase.
And it's a phrase we say all the time,
whether it's on the air here or just in person
in their day-to-day lives.
But it also takes action.
It's not, it's a great phrase.
Takes a little action behind it as well.
We encourage you to go to every one of these markets
because there is no reruns.
Every market's going to be a little bit different.
Be sure to check them out.
And certainly feedback.
The gang over here running this really love hearing
from the community and really love
making running this for the community.
So want to hear feedback from you guys
when it comes to these things.
And certainly vendors.
All you vendors out there, we want all of you.
Want to hear from all of you.
Mike, if a vendor out there is listening,
would like to be a part of this event.
How can they reach you?
Well, they can reach me at the
WR Winters market at gmail.com.
And they can also, are they can phone me?
715-697-9762?
Are they can leave a post or I mean a contact on Facebook
or WR Winters Farmer's market on Facebook?
They can leave a message.
And I'll get back to them.
We're certainly interested in all vendors.
We're looking to expand all the time.
We have not filled up our space.
We got room.
The more vendors we have, the more customers we can bring in.
The more customers we can bring in,
the better it works for everybody.
Well said.
And thank you for the time, Mike.
Always good to talk to you.
Thanks for everything you're doing for the community.
Thank you for having us.
Beth, before we let you go, one, congratulations
on the casting and white Christmas.
Get your tickets for that everybody at WRctheeter.org.
We'll meet you there at the studio.
There's going to be a lot of fun.
It's going to be a really good show.
Congratulations to you and the cast.
And I did want to remind the audience
that you have great services that you do every Sunday.
And you put them out there for everybody on YouTube.
Wanted to fill people how they can get that.
Yeah.
All you need to do is type in Wisconsin
or Appets Moravian Church.
And you'll find our YouTube channel.
And we live stream when we're having service.
And then we keep it posted under the Lives tab.
So you can go back and see some of our previous services as well.
And then we also try to post that onto our Facebook
or our website, usually on a Tuesday morning.
I encourage you to check that out, everybody.
And subscribe to the page.
Keep up the date and the great work
that they are doing over there.
Really do appreciate it.
And bet that people have follow up wings about to you.
How can they reach you?
You can call the church office at 715-423-0180.
You can email a Moravian at wctc.net.
Or you can contact me directly at www.rmcpasteratgmail.com.
Encourage you to do that, everybody.
And you can find out more as well at the website,
www.warmoravian.org.
www.warmoravian.org.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
The Winter Farmers Market Social Media Facebook page
is fantastic.
Another great way to reach out to the gang here.
Thank you both so much for the time.
I appreciate you.
Thank you, James.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll have more Midday Magazine coming up
for you right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM.
WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
