Beloit Farmers Market to enter 50th year

BELOIT — Downtown Beloit will be celebrating a half-century of fresh produce, blooming plants, baked goods and friendly vendors as the Downtown Beloit Association Outdoor Farmers Market kicks off May 3.

The Outdoor Farmers Market will begin its 50th season on the first Saturday in May, with vendors setting up booths on East Grand Avenue and State Street. As usual, the farmers market will be open from 8 a.m. — 1 p.m. each Saturday through October.

Shauna El-Amin, executive director of the Downtown Beloit Association, said some special activities and features are being planned for the 50th anniversary of the farmers market.

“We are planning some give-aways, some basket drawings and more,” she said.

She also said in June, July and August, the market will have some extra vendors in a small parking lot near First National Bank and Trust at the corner of State Street and Grand Avenue.

When the market is in full swing, about 150 vendors will be selling their wares in downtown Beloit.

At the beginning of the season, there will be plants, preserves, and early produce such as asparagus, El-Amin said. As the growing season gets going, more fresh produce will be sold by vendors.

Some of the vendors too participated in the indoor Winter Crafter and Farmers Market will transition to the outdoor market. The indoor market was held at the Downtown Beloit Association offices at 557 E. Grand Ave.

“The indoor market went very well this year, and we still have three more weekends before that ends,” El-Amin said.

Brad Paulson of Brad and Cindi’s Produce in Brodhead, was one of the first vendors at the Beloit Farmers Market when it began in 1975.

“We sold produce in the “Super Block” which is about where City Hall is now,” Paulson recalled. “It was just a big empty lot and we had about a dozen people selling there.”

He said at first there were people selling produce and he remembers one person who sharpened knives for people on a stone wheel.

Paulson was only 15 years old when he first started selling produce at the market for his parents, Earl and Myrtle. When Brad went to college, he would come back on weekends to sell produce at the market.

“It paid my way through college,” Brad Paulson said.

Paulson’s parents initially just wanted to sell produce at the market for a short time, but they ended up selling at the market for 30 years. When Brad Paulson got his own farm, he and his wife Cindi had a vendor booth right next to his parents’.

Paulson enjoys the Beloit market and the people he sees each week.

“There are people who say to me, ‘that melon, or that sweet corn you sold me was the best I have ever eaten.’ You get to see people you have sold to for years or maybe the children of people you sold to,” he said.

The Beloit Farmers Market is one of the most popular outdoor markets in the state. It draws 4,000 to 5,000 visitors each weekend, El-Amin said. About 42% of the visitors to the market are from Beloit, while 45% are from other parts of Rock County and 13% are from elsewhere.

The economic impact to the downtown business district is $5.4 million and the economic impact for the Janesville-Beloit MSA is $6 million, according to data posted on the Downtown Beloit Association website.

The Downtown Beloit Association Farmers Market is one of approximately 300 farmers markets in Wisconsin. The oldest farmers market in Wisconsin is in Stevens Point. The market at Mathias Mitchell Public Square was established in 1847. The oldest farmers market in the country is the Easton, Pennsylvania Farmers Market, established in 1752.