MADISON, Wis.– This week’s weather reminds us spring, and farmers’ market season, are right around the corner. We already know when the Dane County Farmers’ Market will return (April 10th), and we soon will learn where.
Dane County Market Manager Sarah Elliot told News 3 Now she is just waiting for the paperwork to be signed before making an official announcement, but that one could come as soon as tomorrow.
In the meantime, major vendors like Stella’s Bakery are preparing for anything.
“I would say about 80- to 85-percent of our business is at the Dane County Farmers’ Market,” said Jennifer Patrello, the bakery’s owner.
Patrello’s family-owned business is, and always has been, built around ‘Saturdays on the Square.’
“It’s funny it worked out that way,” Patrello explained. “My parents were farmers. We were vegetable farmers first. Through the winter, it forced them to learn how to bake.”
And so, spicy cheese bread was born. 30 years ago. The result of a “happy accident,” it was the family’s first major pivot. The second came last year.
“Our sales were definitely impacted by not being downtown,” Patrello said, adding that sales were nearly cut in half when the market moved from the Capitol Square to the Alliant Energy Center. Some business owners, however, haven’t even been that lucky.
“I would say we’re doing about 10-percent what we normally do,” said Yeng Yang, owner of Yummee Treats & Bakery. Yang didn’t have the name recognition of Stella’s when he also had to upend his family-owned business last year.
“Here we are transitioning to pickups,” he said. “A majority of vendors have been there for years. But at Yummee, we’re still new and just trying to figure everything out.”
Yang had launched his bakery at the market just a year-and-a-half earlier when he made his pandemic pivot: opening Yummee’s first brick-and-mortar to offset poor market sales.
Both Stella’s and Yummee have been selling their products at their Madison-based stores all winter, but both owners agree the market will always be the foundation for their businesses and they’ll be ready to sell this spring, whatever pivot is thrown their way next.
In the meantime, Elliot said the only thing set in stone right now in regards to market season is the start date: April 10th, rain or shine.
Until then, you can buy products from many of your favorite vendors on Wednesdays, as part of Dane County’s local food pickup program. Click here to place your order today.
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
