Sea Cliff Indoor Winter Market

Indoor Winter Farmers Market debuts in Sea Cliff

Residents can enjoy shopping for locally produced, all natural foods in winter

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The Sea Cliff Farmers Market is heading indoors. Residents from Sea Cliff community and all across Long Island are seeking these days to purchase locally grown and fresh produce in the summer, spring and fall, but during the cold winter months fresh produce is hard to come by. The bright, quaint, indoor market is being held at the Sea Cliff Creative Arts Studio on Sea Cliff Avenue.

After six years of hosting the Sea Cliff Farmers Market, Amy Peters, its founder, decided to bring it indoors for the winter. “The market is a makers market,” Peters said. “We’re looking for people who are making the products, and everything that is sold at the market if it’s an value-added product, is made in a certified kitchen. Everything is licensed and insured.”

This January, the Sea Cliff Farmers Market debuted its first annual Indoor Winter Market in the Village of Sea Cliff. In the summer, the market is known for its bounty of organic produce and products.

This winter Peters decided to host an indoor market where local vendors can set up and showcase their products.

“For me, it’s important to keep local and organic when possible at the market.” Peters said. “I’m not dogmatic about it because it’s not possible for everybody to always have organics, if it’s not organic, we try to keep it as natural as possible, no chemical additives or preservatives.”

The last of the local produce was brought in right before Christmas, but that hasn’t stopped the farmers markets and food artisans from showcasing their handcrafted goods that are available year-round.

The feedback from the community about the Indoor Winter Market and the products available has been positive for both vendors and residents.

Roseann Trozzo, the founder of NY Bone Broth and Soup, left her job in corporate America to begin her soup business after private clients reached out to her about making homemade bone broth as a cure for certain ailments. She then started selling her products at the Sea Cliff Farmers Market as her company began to expand. “The people here are great, and it’s nice to be with really nice people,” Trozzo said.

Rachel Rappa, the founder of Coastal Craft Kombucha, started brewing kombucha, a popular healthy fermented tea beverage, in 2012. “Markets like this, farmers markets, are how we started,” Rappa said. The Oceanside-based Coastal Craft Kombucha is now distributed across Long Island and Manhattan, but the company’s presence at the Indoor Winter Market is bringing local awareness to the product.

“Ninety percent of our vendors are right from the community. It’s really nice to have a venue for local people to sell, and then for people in the community to say, ‘Hey, that’s my neighbor!’ and be able to keep the money in the local economy,” said Peters. “They say that there’s a multiplier. For every dollar spent in the community, $1.34 goes into the local economy.”

In the afternoons, residents can stop by the Sea Cliff Indoor Market and browse goods from the vendors, prepared foods from Conscious Kitchen, CBD products from Sea Cliff Sundries, baked goods from Steiner’s Coffee Cake of NY, Dom’s Honey, Horman’s Best Pickles, Esmeralda Designs and Barry’s Tempeh. “We try to keep it food-centric,” Peters said.

Every Saturday the market has special guest vendors, usually local artisans and authors. Among them are: Peace Soap, COCO Confections and Coffee, and handmade cards by Nancy Kirk.

There are new and returning purveyors every Saturday. Check the Sea Cliff Farmers Market Facebook page for information on which vendors will be at the market that week.

The Sea Cliff Indoor Farmers Market is open through May on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. at the Creative Arts Studio, 256 Sea Cliff Ave., Sea Cliff.