West Bend Farmers Market and the Seventeen Towns Behind It

At half past seven on a Saturday morning in June, Main Street in downtown West Bend is already busy, and the farms have been set up for an hour. The West Bend Farmers Market has been voted the best in Wisconsin by popular vote four years running, and tenth in the country, which for a city of this size takes explaining.

The explanation is that almost none of it comes from West Bend. Sort the vendors by where their businesses actually are and you get seventeen towns across three counties. The apples drive down from Sheboygan Falls, the beef comes over from Slinger, the mushrooms from Eden, the soup from Wauwatosa. One street on a Saturday morning is the collection point for a food shed that runs from Lake Michigan to the Kettle Moraine.

Here is what is actually on the tables.

When it is on

Saturdays, 7:30am to 11:00am, rain or shine. The 2026 season runs from 16 May to 31 October.

Three and a half hours is shorter than most markets and it changes how you use it. Arriving at ten means the best produce has gone and some farms are already packing. The regulars come at half seven, and the difference between half seven and half nine is the difference between choosing and taking what is left.

The vegetables, and who grew them

The produce end is where the market earns its reputation, and the growers are a mix of old family operations and certified organic newcomers.

Two farms sell through subscription as well as over the table, which is worth knowing if you like what you buy and want it every week.

From Hartford, Full Harvest Farm is certified organic and built around mixed vegetable production, selling most of it through CSA memberships.

Out of Jackson, Farm Happy is also certified organic, a first-generation family farm running veggie subscriptions alongside the market.

Two more are worth a detour outside market hours. Fideler Farm in Kewaskum does pick-your-own strawberries and raspberries and keeps a farm pantry of jams, jellies and pickled goods.

And Eickstedt Produce runs a family farm with pick-your-own strawberries, chickens, pigs and honeybees, with a farm store attached.

Beyond those, Herther's Homegrown Produce, Xiong Lucky Farm, SL Fresh Produce, Moua Family Farm and Lee Fresh Produce all take wide multi-space runs, and between them account for a serious share of what is on the street.

Meat, and one farm in its seventh generation

The story worth carrying home belongs to Mayer Farms Beef, who drive in from Slinger. They farm 250 acres, raise the cattle, produce milk and grow the crops that feed the herd, and the three children in the family are the seventh generation to work that land.

For sausage, Schwai's Meat and Sausage comes over from Fredonia. Family-owned, old-world smoking methods held for generations, and the smoked products are noticeably larger than what you find elsewhere.

The oddity of the market is Lakewinds Elk Farms, in from Grafton with elk rather than beef. Their farm is open to visitors around the clock if you want to see the animals.

Alongside the meat: Stamper Cheese, Reader Farm's eggs, and Thill's Honey Gardens.

Mushrooms, soup and the specialists

A few vendors do one thing and do it at a scale that makes the drive worth it.

Gourmet's Delight Mushrooms grows certified organic white button, crimini and portabella in Eden, which is a wholesale operation selling retail for one morning a week.

Wisconsin Soup Company comes up from Wauwatosa with soups, bisques and chilis. Artichoke parmesan bisque, black bean habanero, blackened chicken wild rice, red pepper gouda, cheddar corn chowder. In October that stall makes a lot of sense.

Breakfast, if you came hungry

A good share of the traffic here is people eating rather than shopping, and the market is set up for it.

Around it, Cindy's Fresh Egg Rolls, Fanna's On The Fly doing Dutch pancakes, Craine's Kettle Corn and B&L Lemonade.

Coffee comes from two directions. Berres Brothers Coffee Roasters drive in from Watertown with roasted coffee, seasonal and flavoured varieties, and a bakery side that does a chocolate chip scone. Barton Brew Coffee takes a three-space run of its own.

Live music runs at more than one point along the street each week, which is why people stay for two hours rather than twenty minutes.

The bakers

Disproportionate for a market this size, and worth planning around if you have a preference.

Julie's Blue Ribbon Cookies comes up from Cedarburg, entirely homemade from one kitchen, using all-natural ingredients.

From Mequon, La Campagne Bakery also works with natural ingredients and is known chiefly for its cookies.

If gluten is the problem, Molly's Gluten Free Bakery drives over from Pewaukee with chocolate chip cookies, English muffins, gingersnaps, sugar cookies and a range of gluten-free breads. That is a proper selection rather than a token shelf.

Edible Art Studios comes from Sussex with custom cookies and chocolate-covered strawberries, and runs cookie classes the rest of the week.

For sweets rather than bakery, Amy's Candy Kitchen brings chocolate and gourmet apples over from Cedarburg. Breadsmith and Bowl & Batter cover bread and cake.

Apples, and when they arrive

Three orchards come in, and all three matter more from late August onwards than they do in June.

M&T's Gibbsville Orchard comes down from Sheboygan Falls and does U-pick apples, cherries and pumpkins at the farm, with caramel apples at the market.

Gierach Orchards brings Fuji, Gala and Golden Delicious from Mequon.

And Ada Rainbow Orchards travels from Elkhart Lake with apples and fresh cider.

Flowers, plants and a lavender farm

For cut flowers, B's Bouquets drives over from Hartford. They are a working florist who also do wedding arrangements, and they bring fresh vegetables and annuals along with the bouquets.

For plants to put in the ground, Bemis Upland Springs Floral comes from Adell as a garden centre rather than a farm stall.

The longest run of anyone belongs to Hoekstra's Market & Greenhouse, up from Fox Lake with flowers, plants and garden ornaments.

Dahlia's R Us takes three spaces of dahlias alone, and Song's Flowers holds a run of its own.

The stalls that are not food

A larger share of the market than the word farmers suggests, and the reason it holds people rather than emptying at nine.

Beige Boutique and La Belle Vie are both West Bend clothing shops taking a stall rather than outside traders. Beige carries basics, activewear and work attire alongside candles and self-care bits, which is a sensible thing to sell to people already out on a Saturday morning.

Alongside them: 4U Woodworking, KWK Copper, Lucky Lucy Jewelry, Ollie Skincare, Teddy's Tallow Chips and Fuzzy Butts Dog Bakery. Veterans Sharpening will put an edge back on your knives while you shop, which is more useful than it sounds.

When the market is shut

The season ends on 31 October and the street goes quiet until mid-May. The useful thing about knowing who the vendors are is that most of them do not disappear.

The same holds across the roster. Witte's runs its own market in town, Schwai's has a shop in Fredonia, Berres Brothers a roastery in Watertown, Amy's a storefront in Cedarburg.

Out in Slinger, Sippie Hippie is a coffee shop built around a slow, quiet room.

And Shoe's Brew Kombucha keeps regular hours in Jackson, Monday to Saturday.

Treat the market as where you meet them rather than the only place to buy from them, and November stops being a problem.

Practical notes

The market runs 166 numbered stall spaces along Main Street, 141 of them held by full-season vendors who are in the same place every week. The rest rotate, so a stall that had jam last Saturday may have something else this week.

Parking is street and municipal lots around the downtown, and it fills from about eight.

Bring cash and a bag. Many vendors take cards but not all do. WIC and FMNP are both accepted, which the tourism listings tend to leave out.

Rain or shine is meant literally, and a wet Saturday in September is one of the better times to come, because the crowd thins and the farms are still there.

The Washington County Master Gardeners run an educational stall, worth finding if you would rather grow this stuff than buy it.

The market finishes at eleven, which leaves the rest of the day. There are fifteen more things worth doing in things to do in West Bend.

And for somewhere to sit down once the stalls come apart, there is the downtown in where to eat in West Bend.