Evanston’s Community Winter Indoor Farmers’ Market at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston concluded its season on Saturday, March 16 with banner attendance and community support.
Grace Yarnoff of Evanston, one of the co-market managers who shares volunteer leadership duties with Michael Kloster of Evanston, said the church’s winter indoor farmers’ market has run regularly since 2015 but began with a one-day-only Saturday before Thanksgiving market that has remained popular.
With 350 to 600 people coming through each Saturday, the market season (8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) for 2023/2024 launched on Nov. 18 on an every other week basis.
“It’s a really well attended market,” Yarnoff told the Evanston Review. “Evanston has really embraced it and really enjoys it. It’s a really joyful space.”
Patron Wendy Anker of Evanston carried a spring bouquet of flowers that featured tulips and yellow daffodils.
“I’m always happy at the farmers’ market,” Anker said with a smile.
The upstairs and downstairs at the church quickly became filled with customers visiting the approximate 15 vendors/community groups.
Regular customer Sara Schastok of Evanston said, “It’s a wonderful idea to have the winter market. It’s the gathering place for the community.”
Church quilters were seen making comforting fabric art for world relief organizations. Earlybirds can often hear a church organist playing. Past markets have featured entertainment such as trombone players.
“It’s been a really special market to be a part of because it provides this important service both for the farmers and vendors as well as the Evanston community,” Yarnoff said.
“And I think one of the most special parts for me having been part of it is just seeing all of the relationships that have grown throughout the market seasons and how it’s been able to highlight this important need of both the importance of local produce and also the importance of fighting hunger,” Yarnoff said.
The biggest goals of the market are community building and the fight against hunger, according to Yarnoff.
“Market proceeds benefit local and worldly hunger initiatives.
The City of Evanston has had winter indoor farmers markets held at the Evanston Ecology Center at Ladd Arboretum. The center has been closed for construction since early March with plans to reopen in October.
Via its website, the City of Evanston has pledged the indoor market will return in January 2025, “We’re excited to welcome back the Farmers’ Market in 2025.”
Yarnoff indicated the two indoor winter markets run in conjunction but have worked well.
“It didn’t seem as though they were competing with one another, especially since our market is every other week,” Yarnoff said.
Rev. Mark Sloss, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, said the market has been a great way to serve the community and farmers.
“It’s not just for the community, but it keeps the farmers able to have some place to sell their crops,” he said.
Patron Robert Klein of Skokie, Jocelyn Mallard of Evanston, representing the University of Illinois Master Gardeners program and Evanston Grows, a 501c3 organization, and Mary Beth Schaye of Evanston, representing Collective Resource Compost Cooperative, conversed at a shared community table.
“Evanston is good enough to host it (winter indoor market) and it’s a great environment,” Klein said. “You get to socialize with people and you learn things.”
Mallard said, “There’s a need in Evanston for people to have the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables and Evanston Grows is dedicated to trying to fill that need.”
Brothers Ed and Jason Gast of Eau Claire, Michigan and of Gast Farm, regulars on the Evanston farmers’ market scene, staffed a table outside of the entrance where they sold items including frozen meat, sausage, bacon, apples, frosty jugs of cider, floral cuttings, succulents and eggs.
“I can’t go indoors in the wintertime because it’s too hard to truck everything in there,” Ed Gast said.
“We’ve got a lot of meat,” Jason Gast said.
The two left Michigan on Saturday at about 3 a.m. Evanston time to be set up.
“I’ve been serving this community for more than 40 years,” Ed Gast said. “Some of my customers I’ve had for over 35 years.”
“I think the season has gone really well,” said Yarnoff. “It’s been a really successful market season.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
