Over time, the University of Maryland Farmers Market has become a fall semester staple.
It arrived back on campus this semester for its Fall 2025 season, welcoming students every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m at Tawes Plaza.
Packed with fresh produce and cool crafts, the weekly event features vendors located within 250 miles of College Park. Each stall has its own special origin story with people behind it who have curated their personal passions into real-life products.
For Chasity Hare of Country Vittles from Critter Hill Farm, the UMD market has provided a long-time contact for sales within the campus community.
“We’ve been part of the UMD market since its origination 14 years ago,” said Hare. “Our only point of sale is directly from farm to consumer, and that’s via farmers markets.”
Hare sells all-natural meats and eggs produced on her family’s farms, raised without growth hormones or antibiotics. They raise livestock like cows, hogs, chickens and turkeys between their two farm locations in northern Carroll County, Maryland and Biglerville, Pennsylvania. One of their main sales operations is cattle, of which they maintain a herd of nearly 40.
“For our beef, we’re a cow-calf operation. The calves are born, raised and finished on our farm, they’re with us their whole time,” said Hare. “Right now we have about 36-37 head of cows, somewhere around the upper 30s.”
Another market mainstay is the Bouvier Brand, which offers handcrafted skincare products made. Brand owner Todd Turner works with another vendor Neil Vosters of Randalia Beehives to incorporate bee-derived ingredients like royal jelly and bee venom in his products. Turner says Voster’s involvement with the market predates his own.
“There are multiple hives on Neil’s farm on the eastern shore, at the most, 80, the minimum, 50,” said Turner. “Neil’s been here since this market was at Cole Field House, more than 8 years ago.”
He chose to sell his product at UMD because of the campus environment. As the average undergraduate degree takes 4 years to complete, Turner finds he gets a lot of returning student customers of whom he can develop relationships with.
“Here, we get to meet someone, and they become a long-term customer,” Turner said.
Some vendors like Yuan ‘Ian’ Sun, who runs Sesame Crochet World with his wife Mary, are relatively new to the market. Sun said their stall began out of boredom, as Mary wanted to pick up a new hobby.
“My wife, Mary, was tired of video games and she wanted something to do,” said Sun. “So, she learned to crochet online.”
The small business has since evolved into a bigger at home operation, as just this year Sun’s mother got involved in making products. “My wife crocheted for two years, and in the third year, we started selling because there’s too many products at home,” said Sun. “At the market we’ve kept building. We started with a four foot table and now we have five tables.”
Also attracting customers each week is vendor Paul Lever, who owns Chef Dad Pot Pies. Lever sells homemade pot pies from his stall and online, after pivoting from the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was a chef for 40 years, but the restaurant closed with COVID,” said Lever. “One of the products I sold at the restaurant, the pot pies, I continued to get orders for— it became a side hustle, but then it turned into a full time job again.”
The market concluded its regular fall schedule on Wednesday, Nov. 19, but for any students eager to get into a festive mood, a special Holiday Market is set for Dec. 3.