COLEBROOK – The Northwest Corner is getting a new farmers market next month. Three women who lamented the closing of the Norfolk Farmers Market last year have teamed up to start a new market at Norbrook Farm Brewery on the Norfolk-Colebrook border at 204 Stillman Hill Road.
Beginning Wednesday, May 20 from 5 to 8 p.m. the Northwest Farm to Fork will open under the pavilion at Norbrook, offering food and farm goods such as poultry and beef, produce, flowers, plants prepared foods, including sourdough bread – and live music. The market will run every third Wednesday through October.
“When Norfolk folded last year, we wondered if there was a way that we could bring back a farmers market,” said Devin Grosso, who moved to Norfolk a year ago from Los Angeles. She and April Carter, a fifth generation farmer from Torrington, and Lisa Auclair of Norfolk, who managed the Norfolk market, formed a nonprofit and started scouting for vendors.
To date, Grosso said 20 vendors have been signed. They include Ford Farm in East Canaan, Roy’s Bakery and Farm in Winsted and Jenny’s Greens in New Hartford.
“Anyone who attends can take advantage of what Norbrook has to offer,” Grosso said. “And we picked a day when people are often there for dinner.”She imagines people coming to eat and shopping for weekend groceries.
Norbrook Brewery opened in 2019 and quickly became a popularvenue for young and old with its farm-brewed beers, food offerings and outdoor activities, including hiking and biking trails, bike rentals and disc golf, plus farm animals. A recent expansion has added seating and a tasting room, and a pavilion is nearly complete just beyond the parking lot.
Farmers markets are a staple in the Northwest Corner. Markets in Cornwall and Kent have long-established traditions of drawingregulars for weekend shopping on Fridays in Kent and Saturdays in Cornwall. Millerton also offers a market on Saturdays and there are markets farther afield in Torrington and Collinsville and in Massachusetts in Great Barrington, West Stockbridge and Pittsfield.
