Shop Local in the Indiana Grown Marketplace at the Indiana State Fair

One of the really neat attractions each year at the Indiana State Fair is the Indiana Grown Marketplace located in the Ag/Hort Building. The Indiana Grown Marketplace has over 80 vendors and contains nearly 500 products, like hand crafted sauces, salsa, drink mixes, dried pastas, popcorn, root beer, cured meats, candy, and more.

Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Bruce Kettler says, “Of course, we always have the foods- the sauces, the mixes, but we’ve also got body care lotions, soaps…there’s even some wood products in the store this year that people have brought. So, we’re starting to get more people that see that there’s a way to be able to exhibit. It doesn’t all have to be food. Food’s great. We love it. State fair, you’ve got to think about food, but that marketplace is going to have a lot of really interesting products.”

The Indiana Grown Marketplace is open each day of the fair from 9am-8pm in the Ag/Hort Building.

In addition to running the Indiana Grown Marketplace, Kettler and ISDA are very busy at the fair with other events, including one of Kettler’s favorites, the Hoosier Homestead Awards.

“It’s so neat to be able to honor those farms and farm families that have had a farm in Indiana for 100 years or more. So, this year, we’re going to be honoring about 72 families. We’ve even got a bicentennial farm again, we’re seeing more of those, and so we’ll be able to honor one of those. We’ll have two different ceremonies so we can split it up a little bit, but I’m excited to be able to honor those 72 farms.”

The Hoosier Homestead Awards will take place Wednesday, August 18 from 10am-11:30am and 1pm-2:30pm in the Pop Weaver Youth Pavilion.

Also, be sure to check out ISDA’s Normandy Barn and take in some putt-putt golf at the FFA Pavilion.

The Indiana State Fair is open Wednesday-Sunday now through August 22.

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