Winter farmers market serves up community

Illustration by Megan Rowe

A winter farmers market will be hosted at Duluth Folk School on Dec. 6 from 4 to 7 p.m. to help aid the food desert found in Lincoln Park.

“Lincoln Park is technically a USDA food desert, which means that all of its residents live more than a mile away from a grocery store,” Stephen Lorber, program manager for Seeds of Success, said.

Fresh food is important because it is directly correlated to health diseases and life expectancy, according to Lorber. Due to this food desert in the Lincoln Park neighborhood residents have a ten year less life expectancy than other parts of Duluth.

“We started the farmer’s market as a point of that,” Lorber continued. “We did a call to the community, and they wanted three things: one was a farmer’s market, one was a grocery store, and one was more growing space. So, we were able to answer one of those needs.”

Lorber works for Community Action Duluth to help bring healthy food to this community. The farmers market originally operated in Lincoln Park for five months of the year, but it now operates 10 months of the year.

Having a winter market along with their summer farmers market is just one of the ways Lorber and his team at Community Action Duluth are working to make life easier for these residents.

“We recognize that when you’re a small producer, you have to charge more,” Lorber said. “So, we have different programs for people using EBT, which is food stamps. People using EBT can double their money up to $15 at our info booth.”

People 18 years old or younger are also given a free $4 to spend on fruits or vegetables to help “get families and kids to eat healthier.”

Some of this food at the market includes fresh bread, meat and eggs, canned goods, local crafted items, and storage produce such as beets, potatoes, squash, onions, and carrots.

“There’s a plethora of different local vendors there to connect with the community,” Lorber said.

One of these vendors include Liberation Bakery, a mother and daughter ran micro bakery.

Ora Jewell-Busche, the daughter of the family-run business, likes bringing their homemade bread to different parts of Duluth.

“One of the reasons that we bake is that we want to take this bread we’ve eaten on our travels and bring it to these communities that may not have access to it,” Jewell-Busche said. “I like being in Lincoln Park because I like bringing this old-styled bread to new communities.”

Jewell-Busche especially likes bringing the bakery’s sourdough bread. Her and her mother, Kathleen Busche, uses Kathleen’s house to make the bread and sometimes only one can fit in the kitchen at a time. According to Jewell-Busche, this bread takes a total of three to four days to make but is worth it for the chew and the crust it has.

“We tend to think of bread as a vehicle for other food, but ours is so good that you can eat it plain,” Jewell-Busche said.

Liberation Bakery is one of the 12 vendors planned to be there for winter farmer’s market on Dec. 6.

This is the second year of this winter market. The previous one last year was held at Harrison Community Center in Lincoln Park. This event goes from Nov. 1, 2018 to March 21, 2019 and takes place on the first of every month and the third Thursday of every month.

More information can be found on the Lincoln Farmers Market Facebook page.