From home gardener to farmers market vendor

Selling produce and canned goods at the Port Washington farmers market was something Jody Wenzel “kind of stumbled” into.

Wenzel, a Sheboygan County native who works as the director of marketing for a large manufacturing company, said she had long been a home gardener when she saw a social media post about selling vegetables at farmers markets.

After initially looking into purchasing an orchard, Wenzel and her husband Troy instead moved into a Cedar Grove house with plenty of land for farming and raising animals, and Wenzel said she jumped into action. She went through the Master Gardener course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the couple took a trip to Oklahoma for a class in raising Boer goats — also known as meat goats.

Stocked with fresh vegetables, canned berries and pickles, the Wenzel’s Hilly Lane Acres stand reflects her “jack of all trades” approach to farmers markets.

That approach also helps by ensuring everything for sale will be put to good use.

“My goal is to sell everything, but it doesn’t always work out that way, obviously. The vegetables are hit or miss because it depends on what I grow,” she said, adding that whatever doesn’t get sold finds a place somewhere — it’s usually canned — given to family and friends or just eaten.

Wenzel doesn’t sell goat meat at the farmers market since she doesn’t have portable freezers, but she said the market is an opportunity to find customers for the unusual meat.

“It’s a higher-price meat because it’s harder to find and not a lot of people raise them,” Wenzel said, noting it sells for about $10 per pound.

She said goat meat is popular in Mexican and Jamaican dishes and in cultures with strict dietary restrictions and has recently become better known in the United States.

Wenzel said she’s run the stand for the last two years, starting at the Random Lake farmers market, before recently moving to the Port market, which is usually busy with shoppers.

“I only go every other week but it’s always steady there,” she said.

The numerous restaurants, businesses and coffee shops in downtown Port allow people to make an experience out of the market, Wenzel said.

“You can go by the water or walk and get a coffee,” she said.

While still new to the Port market, she has been welcomed by several vendors and has regular customers, Wenzel said.

“I do get repeat customers. I am selling good, organic produce and people seem to like it,” Wenzel said.

She said the recent trend of purchasing organic and locally-grown foods has helped her business.

“I do get questions about what I add to my jams and jellies and how I grow my produce,” Wenzel said.

The healthy foods trend has also made shopping at the farmers market a weekly, family activity, Wenzel said.

“When I was younger, my mom would go once in a while, but it wasn’t a big thing,” she said.

Wenzel admits selling goods at the farmers market is a time commitment. Between growing, preparing, hauling and selling, it’s no small task.

But, she said, “I like it, even though it is a lot of work.

“From a financial standpoint, I am not going to become a millionaire.”

The satisfaction, she said, comes from selling people food that she would want to buy herself.

Wenzel said her “evenings are basically designated,” along with a good number of her early mornings, to caring for crops and canning jellies, jams and pickles. Something she said is only possible because her four children are grown up and her job is remote.

The Port farmers market runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 26 on East Main Street.