"You have asked for WFM to move to the weekend," the Westport Farmers Market told its followers on November 6. "While we love our Thursdays we want hear your requests." The answer, posted on the market's own site, was a market on the first Saturday of every month through March, "with a full house of vendors." The monthly Saturday isn't brand-new. The Westport Journal reported in November 2025 that the market was adding a monthly Saturday at Gilbertie's for that winter, so this is the second season it has run.
The Saturday house turned out to be a different house. Put the opening Thursday vendor list beside the first Saturday list and they share plenty of names, but they don't match. Thursday carries more of the farms. Saturday brings in a distillery, a coffee roaster, a creamery and The Pie Society. The winter season runs Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., plus first Saturdays, from Nov. 5, 2026, through March 11, 2027, so picking the day is now part of planning the trip.
The Greenhouses on Sylvan Lane
From November through March the market moves into three heated greenhouses at Gilbertie's Herbs & Garden Center, 7 Sylvan Lane. In its opening announcement the market promised "30+ vendors, heated greenhouses, sunshine, lunch," and pointed to a 105-year-old lemon tree. In late October, 06880 described the winter market as "not a scaled-back version of the summer season. It's a full experience, with great vendors."
The host matters to the arrangement. Gilbertie's calls itself a fourth-generation family business founded in 1922. It started as a cut-flower farm and now grows microgreens, lettuces, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, field vegetables and herbs. According to the garden center, manager Carrie Gilbertie helped develop the winter market there. In summer the market works from the Imperial Avenue parking lot every Thursday from May through November. When 06880 marked the market's 20th anniversary in June, it traced the market back to a few tents in the Westport Country Playhouse parking lot, started with encouragement from Paul Newman and Michel Nischan.
For most of its 20 years, then, the market has been a Thursday habit. The monthly Saturdays, now in their second winter, are the one break from that routine.
What Opening Thursday Looked Like
The market's November 3 post listed the weekly vendors for the Nov. 5 opening. Several names on it are the farms, cheesemakers and seafood that make the trip worthwhile in January:
- Cheese and dairy: Calf & Clover Creamery and Cato Corner Creamery
- Seafood and mushrooms: Oceans 180 and Seacoast Mushrooms
- Farms: Beaver Brook Farm, Fort Hill Farm, Hungry Reaper Farm, Shaggy Coos Farm, Riverbank Farm, Woodland Farm, Ox Hollow Farm and Hoadley Hills Farm
- Bread and baking: Wave Hill Breads, Kneads Bakery & Café and Fatto a Mano
- Prepared food and pantry: Badass Bagels, Boxcar Cantina, Edgewise Kitchen, Farmers & Cooks, Herbaceous Catering, Nit Noi Provisions and Plantidote, with Bubble & Brew, Herbal Deva, High Ridge Hydroponics and Paul's Custom Pet Food rounding out the list
The same post added a "Fresh This Week" group: The Hickories Farm, D's Gluten Free Bakery, Jackie's Empanadas, Stylish Spoon, Planet Bee Apiary, Henny Penny Farm and Rude Boy Baking Co. The market marks which vendors are farms and which farms accept FMNP benefits. On opening week, Fort Hill, High Ridge Hydroponics, Hoadley Hills, Hungry Reaper, Ox Hollow, Riverbank, Shaggy Coos and Woodland all had the FMNP mark.
Who Turned Up on the First Saturday
The November 7 Saturday list had 30 vendors. Most were Thursday regulars: Wave Hill Breads, Fatto a Mano Bakery, Riverbank Farm, Woodland Farm, Ox Hollow Farm, Hoadley Hills Farm, Herbaceous Catering, Jackie's Empanadas and others. Eight names were not on the opening Thursday list at all:
- Fifth State Distillery
- Sound Coffees
- Beurre Creamery
- Skimchi and Seoul
- Double A Ranch
- EHSTO
- WE Organics
- The Pie Society
Some Thursday names also didn't appear on that Saturday list, including Oceans 180, Seacoast Mushrooms, Cato Corner Creamery, Calf & Clover Creamery, Kneads Bakery & Café, Fort Hill Farm, Hungry Reaper Farm, Shaggy Coos Farm and Beaver Brook Farm.
Each list covers a single market day and doesn't guarantee who comes every week. Still, the two days lean in different directions. Thursday had more of the farms and the fish. Saturday added drinks, coffee and a second creamery. Before a trip for something specific, such as a fish order or a particular cheese, it helps to read that week's "Who's On Deck" post on the market's site, where both lists above first appeared.
Why a Winter Market Needs Both Days
The Westport Journal's season preview explains why the market stays open through the cold months at all. Organizers told the paper that the winter season gives small farms and independent food businesses income in months when direct sales are harder to find, and helps them keep their customers until spring. Executive director Lori Cochran-Dougall told the Westport Journal:
"Fresh, local food doesn't take a winter break — and neither do we. The winter market at Gilbertie's is one of my favorite things we do."
A Thursday market from 10 to 2 works for the people who are free on a weekday. A first Saturday works for people who aren't, and its lineup shows the market treating that day as its own market rather than a repeat of Thursday. The paper also reported that the season will include demonstrations and community events.
Thanksgiving Week and the Pie Orders
Thursday, Nov. 19, is a regular market day at Gilbertie's, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thanksgiving week works differently. In 2025, the Westport Journal reported that the weekly market didn't run on Thanksgiving Day and that the annual pre-Thanksgiving market was held on Tuesday, Nov. 25. This year's holiday-week plan will be on the market's site.
Several market vendors also take Thanksgiving pie orders, according to CT Bites' 2026 holiday pie guide:
- The Pie Society: apple, pumpkin cream, chocolate bourbon pecan, crumble and maple blueberry, plus a mini pie pack, with pickup at the Westport Farmers Market or local delivery. Its Thanksgiving page lists local delivery from November 19 through 24.
- Fatto a Mano: pies, breads, crostatas and other desserts, with Thanksgiving pickup on Nov. 24 or Nov. 25.
- Wakeman Town Farm: 9-inch Oronoque Farms pies sold in support of Earth Animal's Mitten Project, which benefits CT Food Share. Flavors are apple, apple crumb, blueberry, blueberry crumb, cherry, cherry crumb and pumpkin. Orders close Nov. 21, and pickup is at Earth Animal.
December 5 Is a First Saturday
The next first Saturday is December 5, and it lands on one of the fullest days of the season. Three events run one after another, with a half hour of overlap between the first two:
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The winter farmers market at Gilbertie's, on its first-Saturday schedule.
- 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.: Gilbertie's Holiday Wreath Workshop, also at the Westport garden center.
- 4 to 7 p.m.: Westport's sixth annual Holiday Stroll downtown. 06880 lists merchant promotions, vendors, Santa and a menorah lighting along Main, Elm and Church streets.
That makes for a full afternoon: shop the greenhouses at Sylvan Lane before 1:30, stay for the wreath workshop, then head downtown for the stroll. After that, first-Saturday markets continue each month through March, and the Thursday markets run every week until the season ends March 11.
When I'm working with a family on a move, I often point them to small routines like a Thursday at Gilbertie's in February. If you're thinking about what your Westport home is worth this winter, Gina Hackett can walk you through it over coffee. Request Your Home Valuation.
