Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market set to shift into fall mode; sets holiday-themed events

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

The Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market is gearing up for its annual move indoors for the fall and winter seasons. It will conclude its outdoor run this Saturday, with the special “Fall Festival” from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the South Ninth and Cayuga streets side on Academy Park, before taking up residency at the First Presbyterian Church of Lewiston, 505 Cayuga St.

“We've had a very busy summer market season,” market owner and baker Rachel Jolbert said. “We had a total of 132 participating vendors between full-time, part-time, and what we call pop-up vendors, where they may just come once or twice or during one of our special festivals. This is definitely the biggest market season, in terms of amount of vendors.

“I've gotten a lot of people from the community really happy with the variety of items that we're selling at the market. This year, we added some new food products, which was high on my list to add. So, we've had some homemade hot sauce companies that came; we had some more prepared foods that came; we added additional bakers and sourdough bakers, which is really popular right now.”

Though the North American business climate and U.S.-Canada relations have been chilly, Jolbert noted visitors to the market continue to be enthusiastic about buying local.

“Honestly, I think that there's been kind of like this renaissance of supporting small, supporting local – for a while, but especially now with people kind of not shopping at your big retailers as often. I don't even think it's necessarily economically driven; they more so want to support the people, and that they're willing to even spend a little more to support people in their community. … They're more wanting to support their neighbors and their community, and then it also is a little more economically friendly, as a bonus. But I think really the draw is just to be supportive of small business and the people who live in your community, versus the ‘big box’ retailers.”

The fall/winter market debuts Oct. 25 with a special trunk-or-treat in the First Presbyterian Church rear parking lot. It continues most Saturdays, also from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., through May 23, 2026. The full schedule is available online at www.lewistonartisanfarmersmarket.com.

Though the indoor market is smaller than what’s offered at Academy Park, it still provides a good cross-section of farmer and artisan merchants.

“We have a lot of what are called cold-storage produce items,” Jolbert said. “These are still locally grown products that can be stored for a long time over the winter. That includes things like apples and potatoes; onions are in that category. And then we do still have farmers who are producing things like salad greens. They can grow those in kind of insulated greenhouses or food houses, and they could still grow those things into the colder months. Microgreens are still fresh.

“Obviously, chickens do start laying a little bit less, but you'll still see local eggs. You'll still see local honey. And then we have three bakers, food producers, and then a lot of the artisans definitely tick up around the holidays, so you can get locally made jewelry and just different homemade crafts and things for gifts, which is nice.”

New this year, the Lewiston Artisans Farmers Market is offering two holiday-themed special events.

“Dec. 7, the market is hosting our first ever ‘Holly Jolly Market’ at Lewiston Fire Co. No. 1, and this is put on by the farmers market, but it is a little less farmer-focused,” Jolbert said. “We do have a few of our farmers that are coming with some of their dried floral items, and homemade products like jams, jellies, granola, but not necessarily produce items; and then we've got our charcuterie company. We've got Wandering Gypsy coming with beer; and then there's many jewelers, candlemakers; we have some apparel, dog treats – just a little bit of everything. We tried to curate for more of a holiday shopping experience, versus farmers market experience for that.”

Jolbert added, “The idea is to get people into the village on the Sunday of the Christmas Walk, because there's so many activities on Saturday. We wanted to get people into the village before the parade on Sunday. Hopefully they'll come to the market, buy some stuff, get their Christmas shopping done, and then maybe go get a bite to eat before the parade; get their spot to watch the lights parade.”

Then, “Our first ‘Grinch breakfast’ is kind of a play off of breakfast with Santa, but we wanted to do something a little different – and there actually are a lot of children who really do love the Grinch,” Jolbert said. “We have three time slots, and that is on Dec. 13, right at the First Presbyterian Church. There's a 9 o'clock timeslot, a 10:30 timeslot, and a 12 o'clock timeslot. Tickets are available online. This includes a fully homemade breakfast. It will be served, and everyone will get eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, pancakes, fresh pastries, a choice of one cold drink and hot drink. And then the children will get a goodie bag of Grinch goodies, as well as their visit with the Grinch.”