Corvallis-AlbanyFarmers’ Markets
FRESH, LOCAL, FARM-DIRECT
Saturdays and Wednesdays, April–December 2O23
The name is one word shorter.
“Corvallis Indoor Winter Market” has never quite rolled off the tongue. And it’s less accurate than it was in the past.
A number of vendors are inside Guerber Hall at the Benton County Fairgrounds. But a larger number of vendor spaces are outside under cover between two other sheds. Restaurants and a few other vendors provide their own shelter.
Corvallis-Albany Farmers’ Markets performs many management functions for the winter market, which remains a separate nonprofit.
Together, market organizers are working to make the winter market as efficient and resilient as possible while retaining its many strengths.
As the 2023 season closed, we lost two pivotal figures in the history of what is now Corvallis-Albany Farmers’ Markets.
Dr. Alan Kapuler, known to many as Mushroom, was an internationally known plant breeder who with his wife, Linda, was a founding vendor at the Corvallis Saturday Farmers’ Market in 1991. He died on Nov. 11, just weeks before the Nov. 27 passing of Ron Spisso, our first manager and the organizer of the Corvallis Saturday Farmers’ Market Association, which became Corvallis-Albany Farmers’ Markets.
Mushroom and Ron came from very different places and disciplines, yet their relationship spanned decades – uninterrupted even after Ron became a small business adviser for Oregon Coast Community College.
They arrived in Corvallis within a few years of one another, and both passed away in November of 2023. They both cared for the betterment of their community and had high regard for one another.
