Eating Wyoming: Meadowlark Market Boosts Sales For Small Food Producers

During the early days of the pandemic as some grocery stores were cleared out of certain goods, it caused additional panic for many in an already unsettled time.

That uncertainty was a catalyst in the eventual creation of the Meadowlark Market and Kitchen in Lander, which opened in March. The market offers locally grown produce and goods year-round.

“I think across the board, once COVID hit, especially here in Lander, our grocery shelves were empty,” Meadowlark Market Manager Maria Gribowskas said. “That really kicked it off. Now people know the producers, and they know who’s out there, so if something like this happens again we can still get food.”

A Taste Of Local

Meadowlark Market and Kitchen is an official project of the Slow Food Wind River nonprofit program. It is part of the Slow Food USA movement, which says it strives to “create a world where all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet.”

“So far it's been amazing,” Gribowskas said. “People are excited to have it, and when they're excited, they tell other people, so there's been so many people that come into the store and say, ‘I heard about this through so and so.’”

The concept for the project began in June 2023. Knowing many people in Lander were traveling to farms and ranches around the area to pick up bread, cheese, milk and produce, Slow Food Wind River wanted a brick-and-mortar store to bring local food to a single location.

With assistance from the Jackson chapter Slow Food in the Tetons, as well as inspiration from the Fremont Local Market in Riverton, the group began on its mission to grow a sustainable food economy by supporting producers, educating consumers and connecting them together.

Slow Food Wind River eventually found the perfect space to house the market, as well as an investor for the 100-plus-year-old building located at 208 Main St.

“It's been everything from a mercantile to a natural food store to a restaurant,” interim kitchen manager Hannah Darrin said. “There is a nice industrial kitchen set up in the back. The building has beautiful high ceilings and wood floors.”

As they began to prepare the space for occupancy, the group did popup markets to get the Meadowlark name out there for producers and consumers.

Up And Running

There are now 71 producers from around the state sending products to the market, including the Lander area, as well as Saratoga, Powell, Afton and Jackson, with more showing interest every day, Gribowskas said.

“We’ve mainly reached out to people through word of mouth and social media,” she added. “Word of mouth is huge. I think that we probably got most of our producers that way. We make sure we tell everybody it's fresh food and it's locally grown. People are excited.”

Meadowlark Market serves as a consistent outlet store for products that are made in home kitchens under the Wyoming Food Freedom Act. They’re also selling products at wholesale that have been created in commercial kitchens.

Goods range from produce to meats, coffees and teas, dairy products, baked goods, spices, flowers and other homemade items such as sauerkraut and tortillas. The market also just added grab-and-go lunches made from food sold throughout the market.

“It's just really fun to be part of it, and it feels really natural and normal to buy food that's made right there in our community and just share our excess with others,” producer Jan Francisco said. “We had two Jersey cows and (they produce) too much milk for us, so it's nice to be able to use the excess that we have to help other people live with local foods.”

Francisco and her husband Ben own Country Meadows Dairy, a small family farm.

“We sell raw milk, and then I make yogurt and buttermilk,” she said. “And my husband has a side hustle called Dr. Ben's Health Tonic, which is a probiotic soda that he makes with organic ingredients. We sell both of those lines there at the market, and everything we make is just in our kitchen.”

Before the market people had to drive out to the farm to buy the items. However, since the Franciscos began selling there in March they have seen demand jump nearly four-fold.

“We are increasing our volume by a tremendous amount by selling at the market,” Francisco said. “By month two it was like, ‘What? This is a lot. This is a lot more than I thought,’ but it has worked out great.”

Creating The Kitchen

With the market now up and running, focus has turned to getting its kitchen online.

“I think that the trend of having shared-use or commissary kitchens is becoming more and more popular in towns, and certainly in cities and large metropolitan areas,” Darrin said. “But there is also the desire for small food entrepreneurs to have a commercial space for product development without paying the overhead of having an industrial-sized kitchen. This gives new business owners a large palette to work from.

Darrin recently started the search for producers to use the kitchen.

“Turning the kitchen into a space that’s shareable and usable has been a longer process than getting the market going, but we’re finally ready to start the onboarding process,” she said.

The kitchen has enough countertop space for a couple different workstations. It will have 24-hour access, with up to three users at a time. People can rent the space at an hourly or monthly rate. They will also be able to rent shelf space in the kitchen.

Meadowlark also plans to host pop-up dinners from local chefs, cooking classes and even cooking/nutrition classes to help educate people about food.