“A green cabbage the size of a softball, one carrot — lumpy, but a vibrant hunting-vest orange — a sprig of broccoli bursting into flower, eight perfectly reasonable scallions, a generous handful of sage and flat-leaf parsley, some stems of red and green celery, a golden pansy.” I inventoried this harvest from my unheated hoop house on January 1, 2022.
I’m a semiserious gardener, not a professional vegetable grower. Yet by providing just a modicum of shelter from the wind and snow, I manage to keep hearty plants going throughout the cold months.
Nevertheless, I’m still taken by surprise whenever I walk into a winter farmers market and see the bounty at my fingertips: storage crops tumbled in rustic wooden crates; oyster mushrooms in pastel jewel tones; cold-hardy pale pink or crimson radicchio; and custom medleys of shoots, sprouts and frost-sweetened winter greens. Meat vendors tote coolers laden with pork, beef, duck and chicken — and, if shoppers are extra lucky, cartons of eggs that cost less than the ones at the grocery store. Then there are pastries and prepared foods, photos and paintings, jewelry, and steaming beverages to warm cold fingers.
“I would be shocked to hear of someone who went to a winter farmers market for the first time and wasn’t surprised” by the offerings, said Andrew Graham, farmers market specialist at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont and manager of the Vermont Farmers Market Association. “Surprise is the default.”
Not only is the sheer number of winter markets growing — 24 Vermont farmers markets now offer at least some gatherings from November through April — but the variety of goods that can be found at these cold-season pop-ups has also radically increased. “More and more farmers are investing in season-extension infrastructure,” Graham noted. That means that the volume and diversity of winter produce available at markets during the snowy season will continue to grow.
Around the state, winter markets take very different shapes. Some, like the ones in Dorset, Brattleboro and Shelburne, are held weekly year-round. Many, including in St. Johnsbury, Norwich and Bennington, are twice a month. Another 10 or so end after the holidays and pick back up in May or June. Some have live music and other entertainment. Northfield’s offers online preorders and pickup rather than a shoppable market.
During the pandemic, the Burlington Winter Farmers Market was held outside, in the same Pine Street location as the summer market. Three years ago, the winter market moved indoors to Burlington Beer’s Lumière Hall event space. The Flynn Avenue venue boasts exposed-brick walls, a built-in sound system and “really moody lighting,” market director Georgie Rubens said. Plus, she added, Burlington Beer donates the space, charging only a nominal cleaning fee.
Now that shoppers have gotten used to the new location, which is very close to the South End City Market, and perhaps due to some encouraging Saturday weather in 2025, attendance is booming, Rubens said. In November, around 1,400 people showed up for the pre-Thanksgiving market, and she estimated that the regular twice-monthly markets draw nearly 1,000 attendees.
What do the flocks find when they arrive? Many kinds of cheese, rotating prepared foods from around the globe, cranberries, cannoli, colorful variations on sauerkraut, wool sweaters and plenty more. Rubens has been loving the pie and ice cream from Shelburne’s Sisters of Anarchy, whose recent cold-weather flavors include cocoa with homemade marshmallows, cinnamon snickerdoodle, and elderberry.
Digging your farmers market ’fit? Keep an eye out for Jacob Zhao of Burlington’s Stoplight Photography. He’ll snap your picture on instant film while you shop, and you can take the print home with you.
For many years, Kyle Doda of 1000 Stone Farm in Brookfield sold mushrooms, kale, pea shoots, eggs and squash at the Burlington and Montpelier winter markets. “We needed the [off-season] cash flow to pay bills,” he explained. In 2024, he and his wife, chef Betsy Simpson, opened the Farmers’ Hand, a 30-seat restaurant and tasting room inside their on-farm cider house. Now, the revenue from lunches and dinners fills their cold-weather earnings gap.
For vendors, Graham explained, winter market revenue is nearly always lower than on a fine summer day. However, that cold, hard cash is no less critical. “It’s really important for folks just to know that they’re earning income steadily over the winter,” he said.
While you’ll no longer find Doda selling his wares at the Burlington Winter Farmers Market, he believes his years of early morning produce washing and slushy drives were worth it. “Even though winter markets require extra effort on everybody’s part, having access to local food year-round is really important,” he said, pointing out that winter markets are crucial to the local farm economy and to Vermonters at large.
Graham agreed, noting that farmers markets “are a very important access point” for those who rely on food assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Through the Crop Cash program, administered by NOFA-VT, people who receive SNAP benefits and spend some of those dollars at a farmers market can receive up to $20 worth of coupons to purchase produce, plus an additional $20 in coupons that can be used on a wider array of goods. At some markets, Graham noted, these purchases account for more than 50 percent of a given day’s sales.
To Rubens, the benefits of winter markets extend far beyond the dollars spent and earned, although those are vital and “stabilizing” for farmers, she said. Scaled-down versions of their summer cousins, indoor markets “are the purest form of community,” she explained. “It’s calmer, and I see a lot more interaction happening. I see people slowing down and taking their time in a really different way.”
This is true not just for customers, who can dig into conversations with growers and producers, but also for the farmers and artisans. At winter markets, Rubens said, “There’s more time for vendor-to-vendor connections.” She referenced a business collaboration that grew from conversations last year between Julian Hackney of Burlington’s Young at Heart Ginger Beer and Bob Lesnikoski of Fletcher’s Vermont Cranberry.
While the value of winter markets is clear, a key question remains: What do you make with all the onions, squash, roots, leaves and meats?
Chef Mike Borraccio, who grew up in a restaurant family outside Detroit, moved to Vermont in 2021 to take a job at Cloudland Farm in North Pomfret. There, owners Bill and Cathy Emmons raise animals, grow vegetables and operate a 50-seat restaurant on the former site of an ancestor’s blacksmith shop.
At Cloudland, Borraccio serves a different menu every night the restaurant is open, with 72 percent of the food coming from the property, a few select ingredients — such as lemons and olive oil — from around the globe, and the remainder sourced from local producers and vendors at the Norwich Farmers Market. This includes dried beans, popcorn, herbs and vegetables from Hurricane Flats Farm in South Royalton.
Although plenty of Vermont restaurants showcase local ingredients year-round, Borraccio may be the uncrowned king of cooking with seasonal goods: “I’ve done probably 400 to 500 menus,” he guessed.
On a Friday in January, the three-course prix fixe dinner at Cloudland featured a Chioggia beet salad with blue cheese, apples and bone marrow vinaigrette followed by a classic strip loin with root veggies and beef jus, then flourless chocolate cake. The next night, the menu was housemade bread with a cheddar spread and ramp-crab apple jelly, braised beef with crispy onions and horseradish, and pumpkin trifle with yogurt mousse.
How does Borraccio stay creative working with limited ingredients? For one thing, he draws on dishes from his family’s Italian roots, looking to simple, rustic preparations of legumes and vegetables for inspiration. He also has hundreds of cookbooks to which he can turn. Plus, it’s often the case that one crop can be swapped in for another: A recipe for carrot fritters can be morphed to use winter squash, rutabaga or the chef’s beloved Gilfeather turnips, Vermont’s state vegetable. A dish of wilted greens might be as good with kale as it is with chard, collards or cabbage.
Graham is also a cookbook aficionado, but he has a different approach to coming up with cold-weather dishes. “Talk to your mom, talk to your grandma and grandpa, talk to your brother, and talk to your friends about recipes,” he suggested. “Don’t make the internet your first stop.” Another sociable idea: Frequent restaurants such as the Farmers’ Hand and Cloudland Farm to see how chefs who also grow, harvest, pickle and preserve make use of their hard-won goods.
Closer to home, Graham suggested, get involved in regular group meals if you can. “At NOFA, I’m privileged to work somewhere with a potluck culture,” he said. “People talk and say, ‘This is a really great use of cabbage, or of parsnips.’”
Lastly, when you visit a winter market — where the vendors may have more leisure to chat than they do when summer throngs are lining up — query the growers and producers about what they like to make at home with their produce, as well as with what they get from the folks at the neighboring booths.
And if you find yourself sitting down at a market to spoon up some chili or chicken and dumplings, start a conversation with the stranger across the table. Could they point you to a favorite recipe? Maybe someday you’ll even share a meal.
Rubens said community connection is one of the forces driving the Burlington market’s recent growth. “We really lean into being a ‘third space’ where people can come together and gather,” she said. “And in these darker times, we’re experiencing people’s gratitude in a whole different way.”
Find a winter market near you (or far enough away for a road trip) at nofavt.org/farmers-markets/map.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Cold Hardy | Vermont’s winter farmers markets offer veggies, meats and community connection”
This article appears in Jan 7-13 2026.
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