Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, February 14th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here. We want to send a big thank you to our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau,
always giving up their time and giving their time to date through the Wisconsin Rapids Farmers Market.
We got Michael Barnes and with us Marketing Director, Michael O is good to see you.
Yeah, he's good to see you.
Appreciate the time as always, man. Love getting into this.
We're going to get into a bit of the history and what the winter's farmers market is.
Before we do, we do want to let everybody know just a quick note about the farmers market tomorrow, the February 16th.
Yeah, tomorrow on 15th. 15th, yeah, yeah.
I thought I'd miss today.
The time is up.
Yes, there is a funeral that there was a confliction with the space.
So we will be closed tomorrow, but we'll be back up and running on the 22nd with all your favorite goodies.
And we'll run through May 10th, I believe it is.
So, Michael, thank you for that.
When did the farmers market start?
When did that begin?
Well, in the winter of 2021, the Wisconsin Rapids Visitors Convention and Visitors Bureau,
that's a long name because...
Yes, it is.
They had done a test market of that the year before and they felt it was successful
in something that could go in this area.
We hadn't had a winter's market here in quite some time.
And so they put it out there to the community and we were the ones that bit and said,
yeah, we'll try it.
So that's what we've done, been doing since.
I was trying to find some history even farther back from this, like you mentioned,
that there was of this before then and everything.
And the only thing I really saw was a lot of feedback,
a lot of comments of wanting something like this,
of seeing a need for this even before really the ball really got rolling in everything.
I think it's a credit to the Visitors Bureau and the great work that they do,
how much they pay attention to the community.
And certainly above and beyond of our Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church,
and hosting this, because that's kind of where we go to next.
While we are summer market, we have a good spot for it,
a very popular spot for it and everything.
A winter's farmer's market, especially here in Wisconsin.
Boy, you need some space and you need a room.
You need a warm place.
It works out so perfectly that where the summer's market is,
it's just kitty corner to where the winter farmer market is.
Yes, just down the street.
Well, you know, as everybody in Wisconsin knows, it's pretty cold outside.
I don't know that you want to be wandering the streets at 10 degrees.
So you do need a warm space and it creates challenges for us
on the types of vendors we can bring in and the things we can do.
But we keep on, keep on pitching, as they say.
And this market, I do know there was a history of a winter's farmer's market way way back.
I don't know if you were in town when we used to have a mall way back then.
So I don't think there's anything since then.
I mean, it's a long way back.
And certainly the community has shown and drove how much they appreciate this,
how much they use this, buy from these vendors and everything.
Something that we'll touch on here and there as well is what this creates, too.
The economic impact this has on a community is certainly noteworthy.
We have people coming from out of town to these things.
You have locals in town that may not be on this side of town normally.
So they're going over there.
There's that part of it that is certainly an impact.
The, just giving people somewhere to go in the winter.
And somewhere to come, you know, come on, talk with others and conversate in everything.
That creates synergy.
That creates connections and different conversations that probably would not happen otherwise,
especially face to face, where we all know we talk a little bit differently and more
personable when we're in person.
And all that is very important.
But I first off, the first thing I think of and I have since I was a little kid growing up in
Chicago and attending farmer's markets my whole life is the vendors as the people.
And these are individuals that are the backbone of our country,
or the backbone of our state.
And we, we don't give them enough opportunities in society to sell their goods,
to simply make a living to do their job.
The winter's farmer market creates that.
It gives that opportunity.
It gives people an opening that they wouldn't have otherwise.
Just bluntly, it just wouldn't have it.
So if they make five cents going to the winter's farmer's market,
that's five more cents they would not have had going through these cold winter months.
Anything that helps our ag industry,
anybody that helps our independent industry and independent workers out there and stuff.
There's no downside to that, there's no negative to that.
And I greatly appreciate that the winter's farmer's market and you and your team and all the work
you guys do for this are giving those opportunities.
Certainly again, two consumers out there that are getting great products and really enjoy these
products and count on them.
But the first and foremost to me, to these vendors.
Yes, the vendors are really the truest, small business there is.
You know, you want to talk about small business, these are small business.
And these are people that are trying, many of them trying to earn a living doing
particular craft or particular thing they're good at.
Say it's such as baking or making solstice.
These people are trying to make a living doing this and they do need places to go.
I mean, there's some events during the winter but this is one that consistently is there,
week after week for them, taking up that space that they don't have from October till June.
You know, and it's another thing too when I think about this.
And it may seem corny to some people but I genuinely believe this.
It's helping people live the American dream.
Like it generally is.
The oldest American dream there is to make a living, a good living doing what you love to do.
It's one of the first, if not the oldest dream that we've had in this country.
And you're helping people do that.
You're helping these individuals fulfill that dream.
And so, I mean, not only you're getting great products and it may be enjoying yourself and
getting some conversation and getting out of the house a little bit.
All these other things, you're going to feel good knowing that.
That you're impacting that.
You're helping that.
That you are truly buying local supporting local.
Michael, when it comes to the time of the winter farmers market is,
let's treat this as if we got people out there listening and never heard of the winter farmers
market all that.
It's hard to imagine, but that there are some people out there.
When is the winter farmers market?
When can people look forward to it next Saturday?
Okay, next Saturday is going to be every Saturday,
9 o'clock in the morning till 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
Sort of traditional, I should say, market times.
And it'll run starting again next Saturday.
Through May 10th, there will be one weekend, the Easter weekend, that we will not be there.
But otherwise, we're going to be there every weekend, weather permitting.
Fortunately, we've only had one weather event in the years we've run it so far.
And this will be the first time that a funeral is actually coming to a way.
So we're pretty steady.
We're pretty steady on that.
And keeping in mind, too, that when it comes to that, that the spring sessions are right around
the corner. Worms, things up or out here, a little bit thinking about that.
They'll have six weeks of the spring farmers market.
That'll be from April 5th to May 10th.
Includes Easter events.
And many other great things we'll talk more about as we get closer to it.
But just to put that, let's drop that seed for everybody.
Let that grow.
Especially with something like this, I think one thing that people might not
realize is that there are some consistent vendors.
There are some products that are there on the regular.
Can we touch on that a little bit, Michael?
So we have some vendors that are there regularly eggs and meats.
There's a farm, JNS family farms is there.
There's a salsa lady, melis, salsa's.
There's purple Shamrock baking, which is a lady who does this full-time as a bakery.
As well as we have, we're starting to get pretty fair attendance from a lady from Starlight
Bakery. It's not a full-time thing with her.
But she's, you know, the weekend she's available.
She does work.
And people do love her sourdough.
There's been a culinary vendor that's been there consistently.
And a lady that sells tamales.
She talks about possibly expanding into ready-to-eat foods next year.
More licensing and stuff like that.
But, you know, she has a food truck in the summer and very popular.
And she's talking about possibly moving into a few food items that people can eat
at the market. The fry pies are very popular.
Yeah.
The people love them.
They're like a, you know, they're, well, you know, they're great.
Something that you can buy and eat one there and take some home for later.
Absolutely, yeah.
All those are great.
And man, I am a sucker for homemade bread.
I love good homemade bread.
Doesn't matter what kind of this is something about it.
And all these products have that kind of, that added ingredient to them, if you will.
But there's also soaps and crafts and some other kind of things down there to keep
it in mind. If you're maybe not looking for food, there's still other kind of things that I
think brows and peak your interest.
Yeah. So we do have consistent soap vendors. We have craft items.
We have had for the last three weeks the historic point bass wiggly people there.
Sort of an informational time that they get people to see more about what that's all about.
It's it's a way, the market's also a way for for for people like that to to have an
opportunity for to present themselves to a greater public. People see more of them.
It's a great thing to mention too to to people out there listening, especially our non-profits
out there listening. That this is another avenue to a real opportunity for you to get your
your voice. You're out there and be heard. That's really cool. That's I didn't know about that.
That's really cool to hear. I do my homework for these things, man, and I didn't know that.
That's great. We also wanted to mention too, along with all of these great things,
some of the other benefits of the Winters Farmer's Market. I know we touched on some of this already,
but I do want to do a deep dive on what the positives of the Winters Farmer's Market.
So the Winters Farmer's Market is a place that like you've said is a place for people to meet.
Not only buy stuff, but you don't get out of the house. It's conveniently placed between
nine and one so that those afternoon basketball and football games will not be.
Yes, nicely done.
Yes, well not be affected.
And it's about community. And community with the vendors and community with each other when
they're down there. The Moravian Church is a lot about community. Old Fashion Term would be
fellowship, but we'll use a more modern term community. Just people interacting with each other.
And that gives you that opportunity to do it.
It's something, I wanted to touch on it when we had the opening and the opportunity,
because we were talking earlier about a location for the Winters Farmer's Market.
And not the debate so much, but of where we put this. And the Moravian Church kind of stepping
up and saying, hey, we've got room over here. And certainly the convenience for people out there
that are used to going to the summer farmers market. And it's a very, it's kitty corner. It's
right there. So, you know, that is perfect for people. And we've touched on so many other aspects
of this. One of the other things that I think is so wonderful about this is in particular,
the Moravian Church doing this. And I've been honest with the audience as much as I have with
Beth and Seth about this one growing up. This is one organization that I did not know as much about.
I did not know as deeply as I do some other faiths growing up in a multi-faith family and everything.
And getting to know Beth and Seth over the years and more about the church, more about Moravians
in general, I can't think of a more perfect place to host this where it is. So come one, come all.
I'll never forget telling Beth about my father looking for services and kind of wondering,
you know, where it could go on a Sunday kind of thing. And I didn't tell Beth what his
domination was. She just said, hey, he can come here. And just right away realizing, well, this is
this is the definition of open-darm. This is the definition of, hey, come one, come all. We love
all. It makes it the perfect place to be able to have this. Along with it, it doesn't hurt that
it's a beautiful church. That's a nice basement. Got a lot of room down there. And it's a beautiful
church. That doesn't hurt. Nice big parking lot, took that up. Well, we got a good parking lot.
We got a basement, you know, the space. Nothing's happening in that space, usually, you know,
and, you know, at that time of day. And, you know, it's a great way for us to give to the community.
We, you know, we have a elevator now. We put it in a few years ago so people
need to give access to the space for people. And we certainly want to remind people not only
that economic impact, but the opportunity to learn from farmers and learn from our ag industry and
learn from these vendors. I always, especially as we go along here in this game, I'm always looking
for more and more opportunities for empathy out of our community. Empathy out of our fellow
individuals, our fellow community, our fellow human beings. And whether it's kind of a headline or
not in this, a sub story of this, I feel, is it's pretty hard not to have empathy for somebody
when you're looking them in the eyes and you're buying their products. You're, you're seeing literally
the work on their face, the dirt under their nails or whatever it might be, you're connecting with
them. You're making contact. You're not buying something on a website online or something like that
and working with a machine. You're talking to an actual human being and the empathy that that
can create and hopefully the reminder, again, that this is the backbone of our state, the ag
industry, our farmers, these individuals that are out there selling these products and everything.
We're not talking to millionaires. We're not talking to people who are raking in the money and
are doing this for the money or something like that. Nobody gets into these industries for that.
They get into these industries because they are a passion of love of so many other things and
that all comes across when you're sitting there talking to them, little on buying their products
and everything. That opportunity, I think, is fantastic. And I know we've mentioned it a little
bit, Michael, but I really do want to hit on the idea that you come down there and you don't spend
a dime. That's okay. We certainly want you to help support these vendors, certainly help you,
you know, yourself, help our economy. All those things are very important, but there's nothing more
important than fellowship, than community. And in the giving the more of our senior population,
or even just people in our age ranges, you know, an opportunity to get out of the house,
talk to some people, see some people, not just working on your laptop or working on your phone
or something like that, but having a real conversation. It's part of why not only do I encourage
anybody out there listening to attend and take in this. I think it's literally one of those events
that everybody out there, no matter who you are, can enjoy. But I really encourage families to
bring kids down to, you know, bring your teenagers down there and some of that. Get them familiar with
these things. Get them familiar with our markets and these individuals that come to these markets.
I was very lucky growing up in a melting pot and having these things around. So it was nothing for
me and my brother and sister. We all still go to markets and stuff. We grew up with this.
So we just kind of have it in our DNA to, hey, this is important. Hey, this is something we want to do.
And not for nothing, everybody, some of the better products you're going to come across. I'm
even touched on that. Some of the more better products you're going to get are from these vendors
and everything. So that's nothing to skate past either. There's so many advantages to this.
Encourage you to check it out and find out more yourself. And the winter farmers market really
does a good job as well of bringing in interesting and different stuff from time to time, Michael,
whenever you can. Oh, absolutely. We talked about kids. We've had a lady that does balloon animals.
We have a lady that's coming a couple times called braids from Kayla. She actually sells these
braids. They put in kids heads. So there's things there for kids. We have popcorn, coffee,
juice, you know, those are all free. Part of trying to be welcoming to people.
You know, and of course, like I said, we do have, you know, we had the weekly in there for several
weeks. And we're looking for more people to like that that we can put in as an opportunity for
people to see different things. We're trying to make this a diverse market. You know, certainly
some of those things that you see in the summer are not as easy for us to get. You know, there's not
that many green gardens in the winter. There's a few places out there, but they're difficult to get.
There are already some of them are already committed to other places. But we're certainly looking for
that. And we continue to try to grow and make this a more diverse, interesting place for people to come.
Customers do sit there and talk with the vendors. They find out a lot. I talk with the vendors.
I find out a lot. I've learned a lot about chickens and the amount of eggs they hatch. And
all the different varied things that are involved in some of these things that these people do.
So yeah, it's a place more than just what you're buying, but also what you can learn in just
something more interesting than looking at Saturday morning TV. Yeah, very, very much more
interesting. And to your point, they're Michael about wanting to bring in different people.
If you're a vendor out there listening, you're somebody out there listening. We encourage you to
reach out to the the winch's farmers market and see if they got because you guys got room over
there from time to time. And can fit more people. We're still growing. We can fit more people.
I have the basement laid out for 20 spaces right now. We're not, we haven't filled up. I can add more
spaces, maybe four to six more spaces. So yeah, we're looking to grow. We're looking to make this
bigger. And you touched on our spring session. The reason we divided up the winter session in the
spring session is we hope to during the spring session. It's kind of a hybrid. You know, if the weather's
good, the vendors like bringing their tents will be out in the parking lot. You know,
we'll set up in the parking lot with tents. It almost seems more interesting sometimes when you
can have that tent and there's no tents. So if it's 65, we're probably going to be upstairs. And
their vendors will be set up out there. So yeah, it's what we're trying to create here. It's a work
in progress. And certainly encourage you out there listening to spread the word about the
winter's farmers market. Let people know about this. You just never know who might, you know,
hear that information that they didn't know otherwise. So be sure to spread the word about this
not only to your community members, but to people outside the community, whether they are a consumer
or they want to be a vendor or a nonprofit out there all come one come all because there is room
and we would love to have you a part of the winter's farmers market. And Michael, before we let
you go, if people do have follow up questions, they'd like to know more about the winter's farmers
market and how they can be involved or just they want to attend. How can they do that?
That was a couple of ways. So you can contact me through our Facebook page, winterfarmersmarket,
facebook.com, www.winterfarmersmarket. You know, you can leave messages on there and we take care
of it. You can also call me 697-9762. I think I got that right here. Yeah. And there's our
e-mail, which is with Scott W.R. Winter's Farmers Market at gmail.com.
And certainly typing it into your search bar, you should be able to come across most of these things.
warmarevian.org, a great website. You can contact them through that way or their Facebook page,
as Michael was telling you, throwing it into your search bar, you should be able to come up with
that information. Again, thank you for the time, Michael. Appreciate you. Say hi to the whole team
over there. And we'll be seeing you next weekend, because this weekend, again, February the 15th,
the Farmers Market will be closed, but it'll be back open the next Saturday. We'll meet you there.
Thank you, James. Thank you, Michael.
Yeah. Thank you, Michael. And thank you to all of our guests throughout the whole week,
we appreciate them. And a big thank you to our friends at the Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau.
Be sure to find out more about what they're doing. Go to their website, visit wisprapids.com,
visit wisprapids.com. You can find out more information and be sure to follow them on social media.
If you need to reach out to them, that's another way to do it. And I want to say a big thank you,
of course, to Pam Hilke, the amazing scheduler behind this show. And of course, the heart of WFHR.
We greatly appreciate you, Pam. One more time. A big thank you to all of our guests throughout the
week. We got more great rest coming up next week. We're going to kick off the week next week with
Midday Magazine with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zach are joining us, looking forward to that,
and looking forward to talk with you again soon and then later. Right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR,
we are locally grown radio.
