With more and more chocolate milk, fresh produce, baked goods and crafts, the Corvallis Indoor Winter Market gets better every year, according to Market Manager Lynne Miller.
Miller has worked with Rebecca Landis, who organizes the weekly Corvallis Farmers’ Market, to create the winter market with local vendors from all over Oregon. The event will take place every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Guerber Hall on the Benton County Fairgrounds from Jan. 22 to April 13.
“The winter market is bigger than people expect it to be because they may not realize there are ways to grow vegetables all year ‘round here,” Landis said.
A board that oversees the vendors ensures that there is a diverse array of products. “Our goal is to enhance the market while not diluting the sales for our vendors … We want a good market with good vendors and a good variety of things,” Miller said, who is president of the board herself.
The market will be held mostly indoors, but since the number of vendors has more than doubled in the last 10 years, the booths have sprawled outside of Guerber Hall. According to the organizers, even if you are outside, there are tents and a shelter to keep dry.
Landis named new food booths making an appearance this year: Little Garden Organic Farm, Tambourine Tree Nursery and Woods Microgreens.
Miller said art vendors include Vince Redhouse Native American music and flutes, Latitude 44 Pet Accessories, Sungold Botanicals and Paz Mendez block prints.
In addition to local goods, there will be booths offering community outreach programs like No Food Left Behind, Basic Needs and the Oregon State University pharmacy program.
“(A local chef) will come up with a dish that utilizes products from multiple vendors in the market,” Landis said. The chef will do a demonstration and samples will be provided.
The market accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food stamps for local goods.
“We run a system where we run people’s cards and give them tokens for their SNAP. Then we have a grant called Double Up Food Bucks that allows us to double their money up to $20 … So you have $40 to spend,” Landis said. “This makes it a lot easier for someone with this assistance to buy local food.”
Landis said customers should park in the large gravel parking lot on the southern side of the fairgrounds.
All applications for new vendors have closed.