The Westport Farmers Market had two Thursdays on its calendar for Nov. 5. The last day of the summer season was scheduled at 50 Imperial Avenue, and the first day of the winter season was scheduled a few miles away in the greenhouses at Gilbertie's Herb Gardens, 7 Sylvan Lane. Thursday, Nov. 12, is the second Thursday market of the winter season. The hours are the same 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as in summer, and vendors set up across three heated greenhouses.
The location makes sense once you know Sylvan Lane's history. In the 1920s, the property's founder grew flowers to sell in January, when no one else had any. A century later, the market spends its winters there.
Nineteen Thursdays on Sylvan Lane
The Westport Journal reports that the winter season runs from Nov. 5, 2026, through March 11, 2027. Markets are Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., plus the first Saturday of each month. That works out to 19 Thursdays. The summer season at Imperial Avenue ran from May 7 to Nov. 5, or 27 Thursdays. So the greenhouse season has about two-thirds as many Thursdays as the summer season, plus five Saturdays.
The first Saturday under that schedule was Nov. 7. The rest of the season's Saturdays are:
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026
- Saturday, Jan. 2, 2027
- Saturday, Feb. 6, 2027
- Saturday, March 6, 2027
The season ends on Thursday, March 11.
From the Playhouse lot to a nonprofit with a winter home
Before it had a winter season, the market started small and in a different spot. The Westport Journal's 20th-season profile says Paul Newman and chef Michel Nischan founded it in 2006 along with their restaurant, The Dressing Room. The first market was held in the Westport Country Playhouse parking lot with 14 vendors and about 500 customers. This year, its 20th season, the same profile counts more than 50 vendors and thousands of customers over the season.
Somewhere along the way, the market went from an offshoot of a restaurant to an independent nonprofit. It also added a dedicated winter market at Gilbertie's. It works with other Westport groups too. Students in the Staples High School Culinary Arts Program use market ingredients to cook meals for the Gillespie Center. Food Rescue US collects unsold fresh food from vendors and distributes it to people in need across Fairfield County.
According to Gilbertie's, the winter market began in 2011, when fourth-generation family member Carrie Gilbertie helped set it up at the garden center. When CT Insider covered Gilbertie's centennial in January 2022, it reported that the store had worked with Lori Cochran, the market's director, to launch the winter market in the greenhouses. Carrie Gilbertie told the outlet why:
"It's something we could do to help the farmers in their off season, as well as see what kind of response we would get from our shoppers. It's a win-win for everybody, and its been getting stronger every year."
That began as an experiment, and it has now been going for 15 years.
A century of growing out of season
Gilbertie's history explains why the market fits there. CT Insider's centennial story traces the business to Antonio Gilbertie, who came to Westport from Naples in 1901. He worked with his brothers at the Fillow Flower Company, whose greenhouses supplied cut flowers to New York buyers. He later bought land on Sylvan Lane, started his own flower business, and learned to force tulips, daffodils and irises to bloom early. "He was supplying the New York market in January when no one else was doing it," his grandson Sal Gilbertie told CT Insider.
The business kept changing with the times. During World War II, Gilbertie's switched to vegetables for the victory-garden and canning effort. After the war, air freight wiped out much of the local cut-flower trade, so the business moved into potted plants, which couldn't be flown in. Herbs came in 1958, after a Westport customer with an herb garden asked for them. At the time of the 2022 story, Sal Gilbertie said the family grew about 200 kinds of herbs, more than 100 vegetable varieties and 36 varieties of microgreens.
Gilbertie's dates the garden center to 1922 and calls itself the largest herb plant grower on the East Coast, with large greenhouses and a gift shop. At this time of year, its own inventory includes Christmas trees, holiday décor, succulents and indoor houseplants. The store is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On a market Thursday or first Saturday, the garden center is open as well, so there's more to shop than the vendors in the greenhouses.
What's under the glass
The market's winter vendors fall into the same broad groups as its summer ones: local farms, fishers, artisanal food producers and makers. Westport Farmers Market executive director Lori Cochran-Dougall described the season to 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. There is something deeply special about walking into those warm greenhouses on a cold morning, seeing our farmers set up their stalls, and watching the community gather around good food when the rest of the world has gone quiet."
Organizers told the Journal that the winter months give small farms and independent food businesses a source of income at a time when there are fewer chances to sell directly to customers. They also help vendors keep up with their regulars between summer seasons. The market says the season will also include demonstrations, community events and other programming. The Westport Farmers Market website is the place to check what's coming up week to week.
This is the same idea Antonio Gilbertie built the business on in the 1920s: food and flowers for sale in the months when local growers usually have nothing to offer.
Saturday, Dec. 5, from greenhouse to Main Street
The December first-Saturday market falls on the same day as two other Westport events, so the day can run from morning to evening.
- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Westport Farmers Market at Gilbertie's. This is the December first-Saturday market, held in the same greenhouses at 7 Sylvan Lane.
- 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Holiday Wreath Workshop at Gilbertie's. This is Gilbertie's own ticketed event, also at 7 Sylvan Lane, and it overlaps the market's last half hour. Tickets are on the Gilbertie's event page.
- 4 to 7 p.m., Holiday Stroll downtown. The sixth annual Holiday Stroll is an evening of holiday shopping, dining and music, put on by the Westport Downtown Association with Dan Woog's 06880.
Retailers, restaurants and service businesses can list a holiday promotion for the stroll for free. Listings are limited to Westport-based businesses, including online shops with a Westport address, and every promotion appears on the Downtown Association's stroll page and on 06880. The deadline to submit is Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 3 p.m. If you go to all three, you'll have bought produce, made a wreath and finished downtown that evening, without having to choose between the greenhouses and Main Street.
The next first-Saturday market after that is Jan. 2, 2027. The Thursday markets continue every week at 10 a.m. until March 11.
On Dec. 5, our team at Fowler & Sakey will be shopping the greenhouses and walking downtown like everyone else. If you have a Westport house that needs the same care and attention to detail this winter, we're glad to start with a free home valuation.