Oshkosh Farmers’ Market kicks off summer season

OSHKOSH, WI – (WISS) – On Saturday, June 1st, the Oshkosh Farmers’ Market kicks off the summer season in Downtown Oshkosh. Shoppers will find fresh produce, locally produced meats and more at the over 100 vendors expected to be there on opening day.

Michelle Schmid-Schultz, Market Manager of the Oshkosh Farmers’ Market says this year marks its 30th anniversary.

“This year, I have already welcomed 189 vendors applications to the market. Opening day, we’re going to have over 100 vendors on the street,” said Schmid-Schultz. “ So rain or shine, the market goes on. We have 10,000 to 15,000 people on opening day. And if it rains, you’ll still see almost that many. It’s like the parting of the seas. When it rains, everyone goes in the businesses and bars. And when the rain stops, they all pour back out in the streets.”

Agriculturally driven

According to Schmid-Shultz, the Oshkosh Farmer’s Market is about 50 percent agriculturally driven with farmers taking up 80 percent of all of the booth space in the market. She says about a hundred different varieties of flowers are available at the market. There are vendors that have specialty mushrooms. She says there are also foragers with booths.

“Our market has been voted Oshkosh’s favorite community event,” said Schmid-Schultz. “We welcome so many different areas of the community. Of course, we feature our fabulous farmers, with their fresh fruits and vegetables and their hand-raised meats. We have bison. We have Texas Longhorn. We have fresh chicken. We have fresh pork.”

More than produce

Schmid-Schultz says the market is more than just for farmers. There are arts and crafts, artists, and live music that all come together to make the event shine. 

“See our wonderful sponsors down there, Downtown Oshkosh and the Oshkosh Convention and Visitors Bureau. But then you’ll also see our handmade crafters. They do everything from lotions and bath bombs and soaps to crafts. We actually have a couple of live art presentations at the market this year,” said Schmid-Schultz. “But one thing that’s unique about Oshkosh is we have busker entertainment from one end to the other. So you can see guitars, you can see blues. We have a music teacher who introduced his musicians to us during the pandemic because they had nowhere to perform. Those students have continued to pop up in the market throughout the market on Saturday mornings. They feature different genres of music, everything from classical to country, Western to Celtic.”

Oshkosh Farmers’ Market Downtown

While the Oshkosh Farmer’s Market closes off a portion of Main Street to traffic to allow vendor booths to set up and shoppers to safely browse, Schmid-Shultz says the downtown businesses don’t mind and have embraced the market.

“When we first started downtown, they opened up at 10, 11, their usual times,” Schmid-Shultz said. “But within a couple of months, they were all opening somewhere between eight and nine o’clock to embrace all the people at the farmer’s market. They let us use their restrooms. They supply additional food and drink when our food truck lines are too long.”

The Oshkosh Farmers’ Market is open from 8:00 to 12:30 every Saturday through October 26th. It is located in the 400 and 500 blocks of North Main Street and the 100 Block of Church Street. Schmid-Shultz says most vendors are ready to sell by 7:30, so many people shop early.