In about four months, the new Logansport Farmers Market is set to open to the public with a goal of becoming a center of the neighborhood where people gather over food, companies flourish, cultures are honored, and everyone is made to feel welcome.

The farmers market has been operating by the Little Turtle Waterway with no organizational or legal structure for decades, before a skirmish over the lot between the Redevelopment Commission and the Cass County Community Foundation. The Cass County Community Foundation was eventually handed over the lot by the city when they won the funding, a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.

“You know, I was preparing myself to be let down, and then I read that we were receiving the funding, and I just sat in here and cried,” Deanna Crispen, President and CEO of the Community Foundation, said. “It just meant so much for our community to have this space and to have something we could all be proud of.”

There is no town square in Logansport. Consequently, there is no good public location to meet downtown.

“It’s a community gathering space, a place where people can come together,” Crispen said. “If you’re out on a walk in the evening, you can walk down and hang out there. You have free Wi Fi, and there’ll be public restrooms available. All those things that we don’t have downtown right now.”

The new setup takes into consideration the other events that usually happen and events that they’re planning on happening in the previously empty lot. The pavilion will be able to be rented out and used for any purpose. Such examples include the Taste of Cass County, the Strawberry Shortcake Festival, concerts, worship, etc.

“They’re not building this pavilion only for the farmer’s market.” Market Manager and Director Emily Klabunde said. “They’re trying to keep lots of different activities in mind for the community. They’ve also mentioned weddings. Although I don’t know how many people are really going to want to be in downtown Logansport under a pavilion on Market Street for that.”

The farmers’ market also values finding fresh food that people can easily trust. 

“As far as people being able to get organic food, that’s obviously important,” vendor Lydia Klabunde said. “Health-wise, all of that is important. They do have fresh foods, like at Aldi or at other places, but it’s a lot harder to find. Whereas when you have a farmer’s market that you know you can trust, and just go to this one place where it’s all locally grown, it’s all organic. That really is good for the people, and it’s great for the farmers to have that outlet.”

Establishing garden plots for new residents and locals who lack the space to cultivate their own food and veggies is an additional arrangement that is set to take place.

“We met with our Haitian community last summer as part of our planning for the grant and asked them, Would you use a garden if you had it?” Crispen said. “And so that’s coming up, it probably won’t be until next year that we’ll start on that.”

The canopy is meant to keep bad weather from disrupting or ruining vendors’ products and to keep the farmers’ market from being weather-dependent, but its unique structure is also meant to attract people’s attention and provide an aesthetic appeal to downtown Logansport.

“Probably the biggest, most interesting thing about this project was the large canopy structure.” Ben Thompson, Project Developer with Steinberger Construction, said. “It’ll be interesting to see how the canopy changes in appearance throughout the year between lighting and the weather changes. It’s got some features that’ll make it interesting to see how the farmer’s market presents over the course of the year.”

Two individuals have launched their own companies in Logansport, named Natasha Walters and Katya Swisher. They are businesswomen who began everything themselves, who have since prospered. This includes purchasing all of the equipment needed, learning all the rules, regulations, state legislation, and other information. Both were on the grant committee to help win the $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. Emily Klabunde believes, along with Walters and Swisher, that the new commercial kitchen would help work around an excessive amount of labor.

“This would be very helpful to people who want to give producing food or starting a food business a try without having to make that huge initial investment and having all that equipment for themselves.” Emily Klabunde said. “I know a lot of the farmers market people have already expressed that they would be interested in it.”

Education opportunities have also arisen in light of the new commercial kitchen.

“We’ve already talked to the Century Career Center about some of the partnerships there,” Crispen said. “Maybe the culinary class comes down and works in our kitchen one day because it’s a full commercial kitchen. There’s an opportunity for them to do everything from planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, and doing a food service, where people are sitting in the learning kitchen, working in the incubator kitchen, and serving food to people who work downtown.”

Given that the pavilion would be around 16,000 square feet in size and potentially accommodate roughly 70 booths as opposed to the present 20-25 vendors, the farmers market will probably expand. Mid-October is when the pavilion is expected to be finished, but the incubator kitchen site is not scheduled for completion until the end of January. The farmers’ market itself is open on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. 

“The way that we do things at the market is understandably daunting to some vendors, but adjustments have to be made, and things do change.” Emily Klabunde said. “They don’t always stay the same, and that’ll be a really good thing. Just like people grow up, our community is growing up, too.”