Freight House Farmers’ Market has new temporary lot

The Freight House Farmer’s Market is calling a new place home temporarily.

Starting this weekend, vendors will be at the Scott County administration building parking lot on West 4th Street in downtown Davenport. The move comes as flood waters are filling the market’s parking lot at Freight House, 421 W. River Drive.

Despite flood water, the farmers’ market parking lot vendors say this is not the first time they’ve been displaced due to flooding and are already preparing to set up at a new location.

Freight House Farmers’ Market operations manager Missy Carter is thankful for the opportunity for vendors to be able to sell during their normal market season.

“The Scott County administration building was nice enough to allow us to move up a couple of blocks temporarily and vend in their parking lot until we can get back home,” she said this week.

Lee and Karie Ostiwinkle — the husband-and-wife owners of “O So Sweet Winery” — appreciate the bond formed between vendors because it feels like a family. The couple said the Davenport area is where most of their wine sales come from.

“You know everybody, you know everyone helps each other. When we were taking stuff out of the Freight House the other day, you know just everyone is helping each other. One person brought pizza; somebody brought a little wine, but yeah, it’s a real good community — a close family,” they said.

Although many vendors are from the Quad Cities and are familiar with flooding season, for one indoor vendor this will be her first time selling outdoors, which is causing concern.

Renee Connor — owner of “Sweets Treats,” famously known for her peanut clusters and chocolate turtles — is worried about not having a fridge to chill her chocolate like she would normally have indoors, but she chooses to remain optimistic about community support.

“It is important to support local because we are the bread and butter of the community and we are what makes Scott County shine,” she said.

Although vendors are grateful for the opportunity to sell during their normal market season, there are other concerns.

“There’s really not a lot of parking there and we fill up the lot as vendors, so it’s hard to get people in and out of that particular spot,” Karie Ostiwinkle said. Lee added: “Also people not knowing well the market is closed so they don’t think there’s an alternative location.”

Overall, many vendors are happy to have the ability to move locations when needed and sell items despite flooding challenges.

“We’re in a better situation than most, where a lot of our vendors they can just pick up and take everything they have to protect with them,” Missy Carter said. “We know that there are a lot of businesses downtown that don’t have that for lack of a better word luxury to be able to pack up and go to another spot so we’re grateful for that.”

The Freight House Farmers’ Market hours are Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It plans to be back in its normal location in the next three weeks. For updates, check out their Facebook page HERE.