They come from Bloomfield and Martinsville, from Freedom and Heltonville, Ind., from Bloomington’s heart and its outskirts.
They gather at Showers Common, right outside City Hall. They’ve been coming since 1975.
Farmers, vendors and artists park and unload the goods they will spend their Saturday morning selling at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, which began its season ?this month.
Their vehicles are stocked full of flowers and vegetables and plants and food, and maybe a child or two, sleepy and swaddled in knitted warm things.
Two of these vans belong to Linda Chapman, the owner of Harvest Moon Flower Farm. She comes from Spencer, Ind., a 20-minute drive from Showers Common. She and her team try to arrive at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for the crowd that begins milling at 8 a.m.
”It’s kind of a wonderful celebration of your week’s efforts,” she said. Chapman and her workers spent the previous day cutting flowers and rushing them out of the morning heat. They arrange 120 bouquets each week for two different markets. By 1 p.m., when the Bloomington market closes, they’ve usually sold out.
Flowers are their specialty, Chapman said, although they sell produce and microgreens, too, both at the market and to local restaurants such as Restaurant Tallent and Finch’s Brasserie. Chapman said Harvest Moon also does weddings — 87 last year.
Six greenhouses fit on the farm’s 2.5 acres, and something is always ?growing.
The farm is tended by several full-time workers, including Chapman and her daughter, and a handful of part-timers.
“Everything about this is small,” she said. “It’s kind of like the little engine ?that could.”
Sixty percent of the farm’s revenue comes from the farmers’ market. Chapman said she likes the energy of it, the two-hour blitz of talking and selling and wrapping flowers and making change. Moving.
“I’m a really physical person,” Chapman said. “It does put aches and pains in my bones, but it keeps me fit ... I don’t mind being tired at the end of the day.”
Harvest Moon grew from the market, Chapman said.
It’s been selling there since its start 28 years ago. She has grown used to seeing the same customers ?every week.
Relationships have been built from years of weekend chats with fellow farmers about the weather and how tired they are. Sometimes they get together for dinner.
She is one of 130 farmers who set up shop at Bloomington’s market. Sixteen prepared food vendors and 65 artists are also contracted.
Marcia Veldman, the farmers’ market coordinator, called the market an incubator.
Small businesses develop there, and the environment fosters the community, she said.
“When you have so many people connecting on a weekly basis, it really helps build that strong sense of community, that strong sense of connection to neighbors, to farmers,” Veldman said. “As we have more and more people buying local food and supporting local farmers, we as a community gain ?security.”
Through the market, Chapman has gained friendships and built a network with local businesses. She said she loves what she’s doing. It fills her soul.
“I have a real thing about having beauty around me,” she said. “I’m kind of manic about it.”
