For Golden impressionist artist Sarah Jane Osadetz, Saturday, Jan. 11 marked her first appearance as a vendor at Revelstoke's biweekly winter farmers' market.
"The passion project is, I wanted my favourite landscapes to be something I could wear - fun colour schemes you're not going to get from other companies, that kind of connects people to the landscape," she said, gesturing toward a painting she crafted of Sovereign Lake in Vernon.
Living in the east and west Kootenays for 30 years, Osadetz, who's also taught skiing and worked in tourism for Parks Canada, had long aspired to get involved in a winter-season market that would help broaden her creative following. A successful Christmas market elsewhere gave her a boost of confidence to visit Revelstoke for the Local Food Initiative's first event of 2025, which hosted more than a dozen vendors inside the Revelstoke Community and Aquatic Centre.
"Revelstoke is a very progressive, open community," Osadetz added. "The fact that they're doing this (market) throughout the winter, I'm very grateful for."
Revelstoke local Nikara Bekolay of Nik's Knacks, who's brought her jewelry and dreamcatchers to the market for about 10 years, was happy to be back at her stall - particularly with the market being back on a Saturday, rather than a quieter Thursday.
"Right now it's mostly just locals, being the beginning of January," she said. "But we get those peak months before Christmas, (and) February and March we'll get the tourists coming back in again."
While markets and artists can get quite competitive, Bekolay noted from experience, Revelstoke's markets have fostered a unique sense of community and positivity for her.
"The art community is a huge reason why I stuck around. There are so many talented artists in this town, and it's a different vibe. We're more supportive and encouraging of each other... It definitely helped me, and that's what kept me."
Fritz Priwall, known as Fritz the Baker, made it to the market for his third year, albeit somewhat against the odds since the power went out Friday in his community of Sicamous before he finished baking.
"With the power outage, I pulled my last bread out of the oven, and then I took my trailer with the generator and kept on baking in the oven in my trailer," Priwall recalled. "Optimism is the key."
The remaining dates for the market this winter are Jan. 25, Feb. 8, Feb. 22, March 6, March 22, April 5 and April 19.
To learn more about the winter farmers' market, visit revelstokelocalfood.com/wintermarket.
