Carbondale Art’s annual Deck the Walls Artisan Market will also feature a winter farmer’s market this year, on Dec. 18 (from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Dec. 19 (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at The Launchpad.

Alongside the work of 55 local artisans filling the Deck the Walls boutique with unique holiday gifts, the farmer’s market will provide some local culinary pizzazz for your holiday dinner table.

Carbondale Arts’ Staci Dickerson organized the 10 food vendors and diligently oversees the operation of all Deck the Walls festivities (which run through Dec. 24).

The farmer’s market, in its fourth year, will include pies (sweet and savory), cakes, cookies, European holiday breads such as kifla (a horn-shaped pastry) and Christmas stollen (a German fruit and nut bread), homemade pastas, chais, chutneys, fresh sourdough breads, meats, mushroom tinctures and homemade dog treats.

Sunshine & Moons owner and pastry chef Sarah Niebler said the natural and organic baker will have assorted cookie boxes, mini-pie boxes (each containing four mini-pies), sweetbreads, wrapped caramels, biscotti, coconut macaroons, cashew caramel turtles and take-and-bake savory rosemary chicken pot pies for purchase.

Sunshine & Moons is located in Glenwood Springs at 2550 Highway 82, and sells pastries at their Deja Brew and Sunshine Too location, which opened in July at 11th Street and Grand Avenue. Niebler said they also make gift baskets and take custom orders at their Highway 82 shop.

Mollie Shipman of Dooley Creek Farm informed The Sopris Sun that they will be at the farmer’s market on Saturday only. They will have a variety of holiday beef bundles, some with ground beef, a steak sampler, or a family pack with various beef cuts.

At the farmer’s market, you can either purchase the meats to-go or arrange for home delivery at a later date.

Dooley Creek Farm, located about eight miles south of Carbondale, is a 100-acre property, with about 25 acres used as pasture land for beef cattle. Last year, they started a meat CSA delivering a mix of grass-fed pork, chicken and beef, to members’ doorsteps once a month. They will have CSA memberships available for sign-up at the market.

Shipman said people are also welcome to visit the farm or pick up purchases there. Deliveries are available, Shipman said, “at 40 miles [radius from the farm], but occasionally we go even as far as Silt.”

She appreciates the opportunity to participate and get the word out about their operation. Plus, she added, proceeds from the market sales “go right back to the people that live here.”

In its 10th year, Deck the Walls is a festive showcase for local artisans to sell their wares. Its popularity with local shoppers has “grown every year, both in the number of vendor artisans and in the volume of sales,” Dickerson shared.

Dickerson said sales have increased each year, even in 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions limited the number of shoppers in the store at any one time. 

Dickerson attributes those steady increases to “the word is getting out that this is a great place to buy handmade gifts. People, I think, are really intentional about their purchases.”

Another incentive for shoppers is that 70% of each purchase goes directly back to the artist, Dickerson explained. The remaining 30% goes to offset the market’s operational costs and to further Carbondale Arts’ education programming.

Dickerson also noted there are no supply chain issues here. “We aren’t dependent on shipping. I can call an artist if they run out of something or somebody wants something special,” she shared.

The mix of artisans changes each year. “We also have new people all the time. There’s usually 25% or 30% of the vendors that are new every single year.”

There’s no need to stress about preparing your holiday feast when, as Dickerson said, “A local culinary artist can do the work for you.”

For more information about Deck the Walls and the winter farmer’s market, visit: www.carbondalearts.com.

Disclaimer: Jeanne Souldern also works part-time in Carbondale Arts’ Artique Gift Shop