Tradition, Nutrition, & Community: The Historic South Side Farmer’s Market
Nestled along a quiet residential street in downtown Fort Wayne, an unassuming barn-like structure comes to life once per week with the vibrant sights, sounds, and smells of one of Fort Wayne’s oldest community staples. The Historic South Side Farmers Market lives up to its name―the weekly market been an agricultural and commercial pillar of Fort Wayne for nearly a century. Located on 3300 Warsaw Street, it hosts dozens of vendors every Saturday between Easter and mid-December from 7 AM to 1 PM. Strolling through the two long wings of the market’s H-shaped building, you’ll find a bit of everything: vendors on the west side offer local produce, hormone-free meat, eggs, honey, preserves, baked goods, herbs, and more. The east side houses a flea market with antiques, handcrafts, books, and jewelry. South Side Farmers Market has been a Saturday morning tradition for patrons and vendors since 1926, and continues to draw crowds who resonate with the quality food, community engagement, and local business that it fosters. In addition to its regular fare, the South Side Farmers Market also has a variety of seasonal offerings and special events throughout the year. Earlier this year, Indiana State Representative Phil GiaQuinta partnered with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to give away free tree seedlings to South Side Farmers Market patrons. During my recent visit to the market, I noticed a beautiful array of flowers and plants available for the summer months. Perfect for front porches like mine that desperately need a refreshing pop of color as the weather warms up! Ann DeGrandchamp, Secretary of the Allen County Ag. Producers, has witnessed the long history of South Side Farmers Market firsthand. Her grandfather, Frederick J. Schlup, was an Aboite Township farmer who helped to organize and build the market 92 years ago. South Side Farmers Market played a central role in future generations of DeGrandchamp’s family, as her father Richard T. Schlup continued to be closely involved with the South Side Farmers Market as he pursued the family produce business. With such an extensive track record of family involvement, DeGrandchamp considers the market to be “in her blood,” and still participates as a board member and as a vendor with her husband Jack and son Daryl. South Side Farmers Market holds a special place in her heart, just as it does for many of its regular patrons. “I’m pretty attached to the market,” says DeGrandchamp. “I’m pretty attached to healthy eating too. While there is a lot to enjoy about the market, I’d have to say my favorite aspect is the opportunity to sell―and buy myself―the various fresh produce that is...
Five Smart Money Moves for First-Time Homebuyers
This is the first in a series of posts for first-time homebuyers from Living Fort Wayne. So you’ve decided to take the plunge into the world of homeownership. Congrats! Purchasing a home is likely one of the biggest financial investments you will make in your lifetime, and it makes sense to do a little homework to make the process easier. In my 13 years as a financial planner, I have worked with many clients to help them transition from renting to owning their home. Here are five things to do before you start looking at houses. 1 – Check your credit Your credit score will be one of the most important factors when you want to qualify for a mortgage loan. It not only affects your ability to get the loan, but your score has an effect on the overall cost as well. In other words, the better your score, the lower your interest rate. To get a sense of where you stand, you can go to annualcreditreport.com to get a free copy of your credit report from all three of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Check for errors and file a dispute if there are any items on the report that are inaccurate. Just because you pay your bills on time does not mean you will have a great credit score. Other factors like the amount of debt you have relative to your available credit limits and the age of your oldest open credit line will factor into your score as well. Either way, you will need to have a score above 720 in order to get the best rates. If you have any negative items, don’t worry! You may still be able to qualify, but at a slightly higher interest rate. Check with a mortgage officer to get the details. They should be able to pull your actual credit score and let you know if there are any glaring issues that will prevent you from getting a mortgage. You can also check for apps like Credit Karma that give you an estimate of your credit score, but be wary of entering sensitive information anywhere online and never enter your credit card info. You should be able to get a score without paying for it, but there is no shortage of online vendors that will try to charge you or sign you up for some type of credit monitoring service in order to get your credit score. 2 – Evaluate your cash flow Before you get on the hook for tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should evaluate your income and liabilities...
Current Fort Wayne – Our community’s new events calendar
Today, Visit Fort Wayne Foundation released a new website to serve Fort Wayne residents – CurrentFortWayne.com. CurrentFortWayne.com is a comprehensive community Calendar of Events, providing information on sports, arts, entertainment and educational events to the community. The calendar is built on Visit Fort Wayne’s robust system and will provide a single portal where an organization can enter their event once and it will be eligible to be included on our partner calendars including Visit Fort Wayne, Arts United, Downtown Improvement District, YLNI Living Fort Wayne, Riverfront Fort Wayne and others. In addition, all community events will be featured on CurrentFortWayne.com, collected in one place for residents to discover. On CurrentFortWayne.com, events can be sorted by category, keyword or date – making it easy for people to find the events of interest to them. “We are delighted to present this comprehensive community calendar of events to the community,” adds Kristen Guthrie, Director of Marketing at Visit Fort Wayne in a prepared statement. “We know that the #1 barrier to people engaging in community activities is that they aren’t aware of the events in advance. Promoting CurrentFortWayne.com to the community will help Fort Wayne residents engage with their community as they discover new events.” Current Fort Wayne is funded by the following partners: Fort Wayne Community Foundation Old National Trust/Parrish Charitable Foundation PNC Charitable Trusts/Sledd Foundation Visit Fort Wayne Foundation For more information, please contact Kristen Guthrie, Visit Fort Wayne Director of Marketing 424-3700 or...
Celebrate Día de los Muertos with the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
This is not a Halloween event – it’s a celebration of life that is important to many people in Mexico, other areas of Latin America and the United States. Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is being celebrated in many places, including right here in northeast Indiana at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. “Día de los Muertos is the biggest festival we have in Mexico,” said Fernando Zapari, editor and publisher of Fort Wayne’s locally-owned El Mexicano Newspaper. During Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico, the lives of loved ones are celebrated by families and friends who decorate their grave sites with cempasúchil (marigold-like flowers), food, mementos and other favorite things from their lives. “I love celebrating Día de los Muertos and remembering my loved ones,” said Zapari, who is remembering his own brother this year at this year’s celebration. “It’s important to keep the tradition alive in our own community.” The festival is a national holiday in Mexico and traces its roots to the pre-Colombian era before Spanish colonization. It has been misunderstood at times outside of Mexican culture and is not Mexico’s version of Halloween but a day a remembrance of loved ones. “When I grew up in Mexico, I used to go to the cemetery, clean the graves and just have a day there,” said Palermo Galindo, community liaison for the mayor’s office of the City of Fort Wayne. “There were so many colors of flowers and smells of incense.” Here in Fort Wayne the gallery of the art museum is filled with alter displays remembering deceased loved ones or groups of people who have died for a cause or due to persecution or injustice. Many of these displays feature traditional symbols like sugar skulls, dancing skeletons and other remembrances created by artists, families and community groups in northeast Indiana. “I’m really happy that the Fort Wayne Museum of Art has provided this opportunity to celebrate this important holiday,” Galindo said. Not only does the celebration provide learning opportunities for people unfamiliar with Mexican culture, it also provides a chance for younger Mexican-Americans to reconnect with the culture of their ancestors. “What I’ve personally seen are grandparents or parents bring the young generations and really explain, ‘oh, we used to do this back home,'” Galindo said. “It’s a connection that maybe was missing.” The Fort Wayne celebration is getting bigger and better every year according to Zapari. This year’s family celebration features traditional music, dancing, costumed characters, food and children’s activities. The celebration is from 2:00 to 6:00 pm on Sunday, October 29, 2017. In addition to the one-day celebration, “The Days of the...
Coming to Fright Night – DIA Fort Wayne – A Celebration of Life!
From DIA Fort Wayne To conclude the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and to celebrate the upcoming Day of the Dead/Dia de Los Muertos holiday, Parkview Health, University of Saint Francis and Sweetwater are excited introduce DIA Fort Wayne- A Celebration of Life! This event will be a part of this year’s Fright Night event on October 21, 2017, hosted by the Downtown Improvement District. The event will take place at the USF Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center in downtown Fort Wayne. Festivities Include: Live Music Local Taco Vendors Beer Garden Face Painting Games Lucha libre wrestlers and altars with ofrendas (elaborate offerings dedicated to the spirit of the departed) Contests including “Best Calaca/Skeleton” Costume Additional sponsors include University of Saint Francis Culturas Unidas, Sud-n-Impact Gym, Fort Wayne’s CW, Sol Kitchen, Salsa Grille, Monterrico To Go, Flora & Lily’s, Mitchell’s Sports Bar & Grill, 5 Star and Cruz Studios. Admission is free from 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm on October 21, 2017. At 5:30 p.m., calacas will meet up with participants of Fright Nights 10th Annual Zombie Walk. For more information, please visit...
Live Storytelling Thrives at The Trap Door
Get Directions When you hear someone tell a live story, you form a personal connection with them. Fort Wayne’s Ben Larson says, “you get an understanding of people that is rare these days, with everybody being so attached to social media. You just get a small glimpse of a person [on social media] and we’re so quick to make snap judgments without getting to know someone, where they’ve been, what’s in their mind. Storytelling helps alleviate that; people are now craving that instead of micro-doses of humanity. We’re 3D people with our own lives, our own back-stories.” Background Larson was an English major in college, and he’s always loved a good story. He became interested in storytelling as theatre after discovering podcasts like “The Moth,” “Risk” and “Snap Judgment.” In 2015, he decided to bring the idea to life in Fort Wayne with The Trap Door. It began with a one-off show, but then the concept was shelved for about a year. In the late summer/early fall of 2016, Larson decided to revive the project. When John Cheesebrew and Becca Bell came on board, the project really began to take off. These three have known each other for years. Larson had worked creatively with Cheesebrew before – they used to play together in the black metal band Fodalla. “John is a good sounding board, he’s brutally honest and he has great ideas,” said Larson. “Becca has been a writer forever and she has a stronger organizational aspect than John or [me]. Also, I knew she could contribute to the creative side. So we all had different sets of skills and they combined well.” Format The Trap Door does two different types of shows, alternating each month. There are story slams and showcase shows. The story slam is a contest. Anyone interested in sharing a story will put their name into a hat. Names are draw and each storyteller tells a five to ten minute story. There are two winners: one chosen by the audience, one by the judges. “We’ve been fortunate in that we haven’t had to worry about filling up time. Sometimes ten minutes before the show we’ll only have two names, but by the time the show starts we’ve gotten 15,” said Larson. In contrast, showcase shows are planned out ahead of time. The team will accept pitches in the form of a 100-word synopsis, and then they’ll choose the storytellers. They occasionally reach out to specific people, but that varies depending on the month. Storytellers will prep their stories ahead of time, working with Larson, Bell and Cheesebrew before the show. Then they decide on an...
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