Winter farmers market connects small businesses with customers

For shoppers, the Port Washington winter market offers a place to find foods. crafts and other products they can’t easily find elsewhere.

But for the vendors who sell everything from organic food to baked goods and dog treats to soaps, the market is a place to find not just customers but relationships with the community and advice from other small business owners.

JoAnne Wilkey, owner of Northwoods Essentials, said it’s important for her to meet her customers.

“I like that one-on-one,” she said. “I get to hear from my customers what they like.

“I think the customers appreciate that too. They can find out about the products that are offered. I can help them find what they need and what can help them.”

Wilkey, who is originally from Grafton but now lives in West Bend, started her business last March, offering customers a line of natural skin care products, many of which use tallow, and magnesium-based items.

“It’s so good for your skin,” Wilkey said. “It’s a game changer.”

She initially sold her items online and at area farmers markets, but when the weather turned cold she turned to indoor markets.

“People like these markets,” Wilkey said. “They will come out in these terrible snowstorms, in the cold weather. I think people like going places where they can see where the things they’re buying are from.”

She appreciates that she can talk to customers about  what works for them.

“I truly believe there’s a cure for just about everything in nature,” she said. “I try to stay as natural as possible.”

Just as important as the relationships she builds with customers, she said, are the relationships she’s created with other vendors.

“Port has a nice variety of vendors there,” she said. “It’s like a little family. Everyone’s so nice. I have done a lot of networking here. We really build each other up and support each other.

“It’s a wonderful community of people.”

She said the vendors, primarily small businesses that make their own products, offer advice to one another and help each other out as much as possible.

And the number of different products offered draws a nice crowd for each market, Wilkey added.

Wilkey said her business has taken off, thanks in part to the role of both the indoor and outdoor markets, and she’s thinking about offering her products in a few select stores this year.

The winter market, held at Inventors Brewpub on the Port lakefront, is open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, Feb. 21 and 28, March 21, April 4 and 18 and May 2 and 16.

The city’s outdoor farmers market opens in June.