The Seymour Area Farmers Market will be open from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in the Walnut Street Parking Lot located south of the railroad tracks near the Jackson County Public Library in Seymour. The market also is open from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesdays. JCB is the sponsor for this week’s Third Saturday market.
Here’s a look at two of the vendors and their products.
Lot Hill Dairy Farm
Jon Claycamp
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Jon has been selling at the Seymour Area Farmers Market for three years.
What items do you sell at the farmers market?
I sell a variety of dairy products, including white milk, chocolate milk, multiple flavors of gelato and a variety of cheeses. All products are made on-site at our family dairy farm. Lot Hill will be dipping gelato at the Jackson County Fair this coming week in front of the FFA building.
Where is your farm located?
Lot Hill Dairy Farm is located in Jackson County just outside of town approximately 5 miles north of Cortland on Seymour Road.
How long have you been farming?
My dad started milking in the mid-’60s. I first started offering gelato at the market three years ago, and this is the second year offering milk and cheese.
Do you farm full time or is this a side business or hobby for you?
I am a full-time farmer.
What made you want to start your farm?
Processing raw milk into a finished product has always been an interest to me, but as farming became more of a challenge financially, adding value to our products became more of a necessity.
What about the market makes it beneficial to you as a farmer?
The market offers a direct market for your goods, immediate results, customer feedback and a great one-on-one experience with the customers.
What do you enjoy most about selling your goods locally?
I mostly enjoy offering an in-demand service to local customers. I enjoy hearing all of the positive feedback and the appreciation from the local buyers that truly want to buy and support local business.
Why do you think folks should shop the market?
The market offers a wonderful, local, fresh, healthier option to your day-to-day lifestyle. In most cases, all of your concerns and questions can be answered directly from the farmers growing and producing your food.
Nightfall Farm
Liz and Nate Brownlee
The Brownlees have been selling at the Seymour Area Farmers Market for three years.
What items do you sell at the farmers market?
We sell frozen chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, and farm-fresh eggs — all produced by us on our family farm. We raise all of our animals outside on green pastures, giving them access to fresh forage, sunlight and space to act like the animals they are. Our lamb is 100% grass-fed, and we feed our chickens, turkeys and pigs a non-GMO ration to supplement the seed heads, bugs, roots, etc. that they are eating from our pasture.
Where is your farm located?
Our farm is just 20 minutes down the road in Crothersville.
How long have you been farming?
We started Nightfall Farm in 2014 after working on and learning from farms for the previous five years.
Do you farm full time or is this a side business or hobby for you?
We are both full time on the farm, and Liz also works part time for a southeast Indiana nonprofit that creates and protects nature preserves for the public to enjoy.
What made you want to start your farm?
We believe that caring for the land and feeding your neighbors is meaningful work, and it’s work that we enjoy. We love seeing the tangible results of a day’s hard work, and we love seeing the progress that we’re making on our farm.
What about the market makes it beneficial to you as a farmer?
We sell at three different farmers markets, and Seymour is the best. We are so grateful that the community values the market and comes to shop and that so many volunteers and farmers work hard to make the market thrive. We always enjoy the chance to talk with our fellow vendors, to see familiar faces and to feel proud that the market has so many amazing products available.
What do you enjoy most about selling your goods locally?
One aspect of the farmers market that we love is that we seldom give out recipes. We are much more likely to have a customer come back to our booth and tell us how they prepared the meat that they bought from us last time.
Why do you think folks should shop the market?
Since we’ve sold at several different markets, we recognize just how special the Seymour market is. You can get so many products all from within 60 miles — cheese, bread, flowers, all sorts of veggies, burritos, honey, melons, meat and more. We always come to sell, and we come with a grocery list of things to buy. We hope to see all of you readers shopping at market, too.