By Desiree Williams
Vendors and shoppers alike came out to enjoy a day on the farm during Maplelawn Farmstead’s second annual Sunshine Market June 23 in Zionsville.
Maplelawn, 9575 Whitestown Rd., features 3.9 acres of 175-year-old barns, livestock enclosures and a home. Since becoming a nonprofit in 2005, Maplelawn’s mission is to preserve and restore the property in order to educate the public about farming during the Great Depression era.
Sunshine Market offers a chance for guests to visit the farm while shopping for antiques, crafts, clothes, food and drinks. Chrissie Stacy, organizer of Sunshine Market and a Maplelawn volunteer, said she and her mother-in-law came up with the idea.
“We’ve always just thought it would be fun to have a vintage market out here,” she said. “It started with some donations to the farmstead of things we couldn’t use, but the families wanted us to be able to use them or sell them.”
Stacy said the goal is to raise awareness of the farmstead and provide an event for the community to shop local.
“I just like the community involvement, getting to see everyone come out,” she said. “We recognize a lot of faces and a lot of people become volunteers at Maplelawn because of this event.”
Vendor numbers grew from 25 in 2017. the inaugural year, to 40 this year. Stacy said she wants to continue growing the market to include a brewery, food trucks and more demonstration crafts.
The third annual Sunshine Market will be in summer 2019. For more, visit maplelawnfarmstead.org.
