Local vendors sold goods indoors at Hillsdale’s new winter market.
Cassandra DeVries | Collegian
The Winter Market opened this year in the Hillsdale Brewing Company. Every other Saturday at 10 a.m., vendors set up tables and sell homemade items, including smoked cheeses, knitted products, soaps, clothing, and baked goods. Now, instead of waiting until the summer farmers market, customers can pay cash for a variety of fresh and unique products.
Aaron and Kathy Brackman sell smoked cheese and cream cheese at the Winter Market through their company Smokin’ B’s Cheese. They started the business after their son wanted to learn how to use a smoker, and an acquaintance mentioned smoked cheese. The Brackmans purchased the smoker and cheese from Wisconsin and spent the next three years perfecting the art of cheese-smoking. Initially, they shared their fresh cheeses with friends, who urged them to go into business.
The Brackmans installed a commercial kitchen, got their license, and reached out to local grocery stores, who gladly began selling their products. The couple also started attending local markets, like those in Hillsdale, to sell their products. As customers flock to the novel cheese company, the Brankmans hope to expand to larger markets. “Right now, it’s part time, but we hope it will take off,” Aaron Brackman said, optimistic about Smokin’ B’s Cheese’s future and the growing demand for the carefully flavored cheese.
Katja Szarafinski knits hats, pot holders, coats, flowers, and bags to sell at the Winter Market. She makes her own yarn from sheep’s wool for all of her products. Last Friday, she attended a sheep shearing in Pittsburgh, Michigan, where she bought two fleeces. She washes and brushes the fleece herself, before taking it to her spinning wheel where she slowly feeds the wool into the machine, which spins the wool into a stand of yarn. Szarafinski learned to knit in grade school in a small provincial town in Germany.
“Knitting saved my life because I was pretty introverted,” she explained. “I wasn’t good at many things but I did some pretty cool knitting even back then.”
As a child, Szarafinski could not afford the fancy store-bought yarn, so she learned to make her own on a spinning wheel. Years later, Szarafinski is still spinning and knitting, contributing tables full of knitted items to the Winter Market.
Kari Amstutz sells T-shirts and soaps at the Winter Market.
“The business stems from my love of clothes,” Amstutz said. “I’ve always loved creating things.”
Using Etsy for inspiration, Amstutz creates most of her own designs, while occasionally purchasing them from fellow artists. Using her Cricut machine, she cuts the design out of vinyl, weeds it (removes the spare scraps of vinyl), and uses a heat press to seal the vinyl onto t-shirts and crewnecks. Amstutz also makes her own soaps.
“I started making homemade soap, just for our family because it’s amazing for dry skin in the wintertime,” she said.
After finding the soap recipe online, she traded out several ingredients for healthier alternatives, developing her own soap recipe.
“I like to make them pretty too,” she added, showcasing a cinnamon soap with brown swirls and a cinnamon stick artfully placed on the top. “Soaps don’t have to be boring.”
