January 27, 2020 at 4:36 p.m.
Farm fresh: YMCA of the Northwoods features local food vendors at Winter Farmers Market
Farm fresh: YMCA of the Northwoods features local food vendors at Winter Farmers Market
By Stephanie Kuski-
The winter market is open from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday at the YMCA of the Northwoods. It features locally-produced items from local vendors, including jams, jellies, vegetables, canned goods, baked goods and fresh eggs.
Tanya Hofrichter and her family own Hofrichter Farms, a local family-run farm just north of Antigo. She makes the nearly 40-mile trek to Rhinelander every Saturday in order to feature her family's items at the market.
Hofrichter said her winter selection features canned goods and restorable vegetables like potatoes, onions and carrots which she harvested in the fall and keeps in bulk throughout the winter.
"In the summer, we do primarily vegetables," Hofrichter explained. "We have four greenhouses and we do almost 20 acres of vegetables outside, which allows me to do a lot of canning for the winter market. We also grow almost 20 varieties of mushrooms and we have those all winter long."
In addition, Hofrichter said she has over 100 chickens on her farm.
"Our chickens seem to be overachievers," she said. "They're free-range and they don't seem to slow down during the winter, so we get around five to six dozen eggs per day."
While the winter months are a slower time of the year for the Hofrichters, the family keeps busy throughout the summer months harvesting crops and traveling to various markets to sell their goods.
"In the summer, I travel just about every day of the week," Hofrichter said. "
This is a full-time business for us."
Hofrichter said she and her family travel to community markets all over the Northwoods during the summer, including Antigo, Tomahawk, Eagle River, Minocqua and Rhinelander.
She and her husband work year-round to keep their business going, but they also enlist the help of their three children who help on the farm all summer.
"Two of my kids are in grade school and their teachers and fellow students ask them questions about growing things," Hofrichter said. "They are knowledgeable about it because this is what we do and they're a part of it every single step."
Hofrichter said providing fresh, healthy food for her children was a major reason why she wanted to start a business on her farm.
"The reason why I started doing what I do is because I wanted to know what my kids were eating," she explained. "My kids are in this everyday - they work with me, they know exactly what we're growing and exactly what we're eating. There's just something about being able to tell them when we sit down for a meal that we grew all of this. It really gives you a feeling of fulfillment."
"It's also nice to be able to provide those same products to other families who maybe don't have the opportunity to grow for themselves," she added.
In setting this example for her children, Hofrichter said she hopes it will have a domino effect so that her children raise their children with a similar awareness of the food they choose to eat.
Hofrichter said the community of Rhinelander has been very supportive of the farmers market, which has allowed it to grow tremendously throughout the years. She said the Winter Farmers Market at the YMCA is one of a handful of markets offered during the winter season.
"I've been coming to Rhinelander for over 10 years now," Hofrichter said. "Whether it's the summer market, where there is a much larger group of vendors, the community supports it and that market is growing. It has so much support and I love it. When we come here for the winter market, the YMCA has been wonderful to work with by offering us a place to have our market."
Vendors like Hofrichter Farms depend on the Winter Farmers Market in order to continue their business throughout the winter months.
Like the Hofrichter family, Chris and Kathy Pownell also feature items from their family business, All Things Wild, at the YMCA's Winter Farmers Market.
They agreed with Hofrichter in that there aren't many farmers markets open during the winter season in this area, so they are sure to make it to the Y every Saturday.
"We have a lot of jams and jellies," Kathy Pownell said. "We also have pickled goods, honey, maple syrup, chaga tea, wild rice, sage and some other little arts and crafts that we make."
Kathy Pownell said she and her husband pick the wildberries for their jams on their own and buy food products from other vendors at other local farmers markets and can or pickle those products themselves.
She said she believes it's important to support other local farmers because supporting local people is what keeps her family in business.
"I think it's very important to keep everything local and show people what is available in this area, either wild or grown by other farmers," Kathy Pownell said. "It's very important."
"It's our living," her husband Chris added.
Chris Pownell said he and his wife attend upwards of five markets per week during the summertime in Boulder Junction, Eagle River, Three Lakes and Land O'Lakes.
Alex Balza owns Hillbilly Hollow, a retail store in Eagle River which features his family farmstead's speciality goat cheeses and other products like eggs, meat and artisan bread.
"We call it a farmers market store because everything in it is a farmers market product and is all sourced from Wisconsin," Balza said of Hillbilly Hollow. "We have baked goods, spices, jams, jellies and salsas. We also do artisan goat cheese. We raise all the goats, the milk stays right on our farm and the cheese is made from our milk only."
Balza agreed with the Pownells in that supporting local people and businesses is important because it helps keep money in the local economy while enabling local families to put food on their table.
"I always try to stress buying local," Balza said. "For me, I would rather pay a little extra knowing it came from someone local rather than the grocery store where they get most of their products from all over the world."
Balza said what started as a hobby farm for him and his family grew into much more than that. He said his family started off selling their products at local farmers markets in the area, which in turn enabled them to open their own brick-and-mortar retail store featuring products from their dairy farmstead.
Balza, the Pownells and the Hofrichter family all rely on local people supporting local people in order for them to continue providing the community with fresh, healthy, locally-sourced food.
They hope to continue featuring their items at the YMCA's Winter Farmers Market and other local markets.
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