Willimantic Farmers Market Guide: What to Buy and Eat

The Willimantic farmers market is a local habit in Willimantic, with growers and makers from eastern Connecticut. Come for what is in season, and turn a bag of market produce into lunch. Expect vegetables, fruit, eggs, bread and honey on the stalls, plus a coffee and a friendly chat with the grower who picked what you are holding.

Eastern Connecticut is farm country, and the market is a window on it.

What is the Willimantic farmers market?

A small outdoor market, with stalls of vegetables, fruit, eggs, bread, honey and prepared food. Customers are residents, students and visitors who come for produce and stay for a chat. It is a social event as much as a shopping trip.

Markets run by season, and winter versions, where they exist, are smaller and indoors.

The market is also where the farm country meets the mill town. Growers who drive in from hill farms sell to families whose grandparents worked the looms, and the conversation between them is part of what you buy.

What is the Willimantic market like?

Compact and friendly. You can walk the whole market in ten minutes, and the vendors know their regulars. Music sometimes plays, and children run on the grass. A coffee and a pastry from a stall is the traditional start, and a bag of tomatoes is the traditional finish.

Arrive early for the best choice, or late for a calmer pace.

Bring cash for the smallest stalls and a reusable bag. Walk the whole market before you buy, so you can compare prices and see what is ripe. Come back to the stall you liked best. Ask before you touch the fruit, and ask for a taste of anything you are unsure about. Growers love to talk about their crops, and a question often earns a recipe. Write the recipe in the note of your rating so you do not lose it.

Where does eastern Connecticut produce come from?

From farms in the hills and valleys around Willimantic, many of them family-run for generations. Corn, tomatoes, apples, berries, squash, greens and root vegetables arrive in turn as the season unfolds. Dairy, eggs and meat from nearby farms sometimes appear as well. For the wider region, read the Quiet Corner guide.

What should you buy in season?

In spring, greens, rhubarb and herbs. In summer, tomatoes, corn, peaches and berries. In fall, apples, squash and pumpkins. In winter, roots, storage apples and bread. Ask a grower what is best this week, and buy what they point to. The farm stands and orchards page covers the fall harvest.

Buy small amounts of soft fruit, since ripe peaches and berries do not keep. Buy hard vegetables in bulk, since squash and potatoes last for weeks. A good market shopper plans meals for the next three days and buys for them.

What can you eat for lunch at the market?

A prepared sandwich, a slice of pizza, a baked good, a bowl of soup or a plate from a food stall, depending on the season. Bring a bag and a bottle of water. Eat on a bench on the square, or carry your food to the river path and enjoy the view.

If you want a proper meal, buy greens, a loaf and some cheese, and cook at home. A market lunch can be as simple as a tomato sandwich with salt and good bread, and in August, nothing beats it.

Main Street has cafes and counters close by for a sit-down meal afterward.

How do you remember the stalls you love?

In the Mosey app, rate what you buy and eat and keep a list of the stalls you want to find again. Rate the item rather than the stall, such as the tomatoes, the loaf or the jar of honey, and after a few Saturdays your ratings show which grower you keep returning to. Add the Farm Producer tag, and a friend who follows you sees the stall on Home.

A list of stalls is a useful thing in a market, because vendors change from year to year. Add a note about what each stall sells best, and you will remember in March what you loved in August.

How do you rate market food?

Stars for the place or stall, then the dish: "peaches, ripe, sweet, juice down the arm". Add the week. Friends who were there can be tagged, and they can add their own rating of the same meal.

Add a stall you love to a list, and your rating tells the next shopper what to buy.

If you shop the market every week, keep a standing list called Market regulars, and add a note when a grower changes what they sell. A small record like that makes the next season easier.

The market is also a good place to take visiting relatives. They see the town at its friendliest, and they leave with tomatoes. Bring a spare bag.

Where next from the square?

The US food guides cover the rest of the country, and the Main Street restaurants page covers the sit-down side.

For the rest of the state, start at the Food in Connecticut page.

Once the tomatoes are on the counter, open the Mosey app, rate what you ate by the dish and start a list called Market days.