An Indianapolis
Monthly article
We buy their corn and shellies, heed their advice on storing basil,
and maybe (secretly) wish we too could show up for work with as
much hard-earned dirt under our fingernails. Allow us to introduce
the grand marshals of summertime in Indiana—the salt-of-the-earth
folks you see manning the farmers-market booths every week. Have
a look around their home offices. Just watch where you step.
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Seldom
Seen Farm
When he was growing up in suburban Zionsville, John Ferree was
eager to leave but never certain which exit to take. “I’ve
worked a number of different jobs in a lot of different places,”
Ferree says. Taking gigs in Idaho and Montana, hitchhiking across
the country, and sailing a three-masted schooner in Milwaukee
were all stops on the road that led him back to a small farm in
Indiana. Today, he uses crop rotations, long-term cover crops,
and unheated greenhouses to farm about 2.5 acres of the 20 acres
that have been passed down through generations of his family.
Your Neighbor’s Garden
Fifteen years after retiring from Eli Lilly Credit Union, Ross
Faris is a natural fit for farmers markets—on both the agricultural
and business fronts. In the late ’80s, he helped restaurateur
Peter George—owner of Peter’s Restaurant and a driving
force in Indy’s finedining scene at the time—organize
Indy’s first farmers market in decades.
Harvest Moon Flower Farm
While city folk are still in rush-hour traffic, Linda Chapman
and her crew pop in some music and begin arranging bouquets of
ranunculus, rudbeckias, zinnias, and dahlias in the cool barn
on her family’s five-acre Spencer homestead. Cutting the
flowers before the midday heat ensures that the blooms will be
at their peak for the day’s farmers markets. Lilies, prairie
roses, and cock’s combs are among the most popular flowers.
My Dad’s Sweet Corn
In 1998, Delta flight attendant Jennifer Baird needed a little
extra income, so she picked up some of her dad’s bicolor
corn, set up in a Carmel parking lot, and proceeded to sell as
many ears as she could pick in a day— before local police
informed her that, according to the zoning legislation and because
of the traffic hazard, she was a sweet-corn outlaw.
Valentine
Hill Farm
During the mid ’90s, Maria Smietana and her husband, Bill
Swanson, visited dozens of country properties searching for the
future site of their dream house. On Valentine’s Day 1999,
they looked at a wooded area in Zionsville with two sloping hills
that seemed to be hugging each other.
Royer Farm
Since 1876, Nikki Royer’s family has been farming the same
125 acres just outside Clinton in Vermillion County. Fifth-generation
Nikki and her husband, Scott Royer, have a sixth generation—their
pre-kindergarten twins Cale and Knic—already in training.
Homestead Growers
Homestead Growers began satisfying Indy’s mushroom cravings
in 2002, after Anita Spencer’s husband, Steve, visited a
friend in Florida who had just purchased a mushroom farm. When
Steve, who grew up hunting wild mushrooms with his family, came
back to Indiana and searched in vain for a Hoosier fungus farm,
he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Click
here to read the entire Indianapolis Monthly article.
Click
here for times/day of week of local farmer's markets.
City Market - Downtown on Market Street between
Delaware and Alabama
Broad Ripple - Parking lot behind Broad Ripple
High School
Traders Point - 9101 Moore Rd, Zionsville
Abundant Life - Abundant Life Church, 7606 E.
82nd St.
Carmel - Carmel City Hall's South Lot, One Civic
Square
Binford - Hawthorn Plaza, at the northwest corner
of Binford and 62nd Streets
Noblesville - Riverview Hospital, just west of
the Conner Street bridge, 395 Westfield Rd.
irvington - Northwest corner of Ellenberger Park,
5301 E. St. Clair St
Zionsville - Corner of Hawthorne and Main streets
Fishers - On the grounds of the Fishers Train
Station, 11601 Municipal Dr.
Greenwood - Greenwood Public Library parking
lot, 310 S. Meridian St.
38th & Meridian - North United Methodist
Church parking lot, 3808 N. Meridian St.
