Minnetrista Farmers’ Market – Attraction to a Museum of Cultural Heritage

Customers can borrow wagons to use as shopping carts to carry their farmers’ market purchases. Farmers cook up samples of meat for customers to sample. Customers breakfast on baked goods sold at many booths. There are also demonstrations like sheep sheering and cooking shows. Children’s activities include “Kids Fun Day” with activities like face painting, a scavenger hunt, and a bean bag toss.
This drawing looks to the south toward the center of the Minnetrista Cultural Center. The Minnetrista Orchard Shop is the building on the left. Customers park in the parking lot to the south and along the street to the north.
The Minnetrista Farmers’ Market is a part of the Minnetrista Orchard Shop, which is a part of the Minnetrista Cultural Center in Muncie, IN. No extended season exists, though the Orchard shop is open year round. It is located about a mile north of downtown Muncie.
This farmers’ market began in the year 2000. The vision statement for Minnetrista Cultural Center is, “Minnetrista will be the leader in creating a distinct regional identity for East Central Indiana based on the region’s heritage.” Most of the produce sold at this farmers’ market is locally grown. The market is here to support the farmers and culture of East Central Indiana.
This event takes place on Wednesday evenings from 4pm to 7pm and Saturday mornings from 7am to 11am in the parking lot of Minnetrista Orchard Shop. The Orchard shop is a part of Minnetrista Cultural Center that is set in a park like setting between the White River and the Delaware County Fairgrounds.
Fees are $4/day for a table and $6/day for truck space on Saturdays. They are $4 and $2 respectively on Wednesdays. About 50 vendors are signed up on the market roster. Market guidelines state that products must be grown in-state. Produce can be bought re-sold here, however, to participate in the WIC program, vendors must grow at least fifty-one percent of their own produce. The WIC program, or The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children is an organization that serves low-income women, infants and children up to the age of five in part by giving vouchers that can be used to buy farmers’ market products. It is estimated that as much as 45% of these farmers’ profits come from WIC vouchers. Products sold at this farmers’ market do not have to have organic or have natural certification.