Rochester MI Farmers Market: Your Guide to the Winter Season

"Right now, if we want to do any events, we have to close the street, which is not always conducive to the atmosphere of outdoor events." Kristi Trevarrow, executive director of Rochester's Downtown Development Authority, said that to The Detroit News this week. She was explaining why the DDA spent years planning a barn-style building next to the Farmers' Market lot.

The building is called Market + The Graham. It sits at 265 E. Second Street, in the old Animal Emergency Center building at the edge of the lot at Third and Water. The Detroit News reported that construction was scheduled to wrap up September 30, with a grand opening on Saturday, November 28. For anyone whose Saturday mornings start at the market, the biggest news is about winter. Until now the downtown market ran only from May through October. This year it keeps going.

A room the downtown never had

The outdoor Downtown Rochester Farmers' Market is in its 27th season. It runs Saturdays from May through October, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and closes on the Fourth of July. Each year it ended with the growing season. Festivals and gatherings downtown worked the same way, on borrowed pavement that had to be closed to cars and reopened afterward.

The Graham changes the setup. According to the DDA, the plan includes a performance stage, larger indoor and outdoor market space, restrooms, seating, landscaping and ADA access. The Detroit News put the size at 4,500 square feet for vendors plus 1,000 square feet of restrooms, which serve both the building and the outdoor market.

The idea came from residents. The DDA says the project grew out of two Community Visioning Sessions, where attendees at both sessions asked for a better Farmers' Market and more places to gather downtown. Trevarrow told The Detroit News the first session happened before COVID-19. The plan took several different designs until the building next to the market lot came up for sale and the project changed shape. "We finally had shovels in the ground this spring," she said.

The name comes from the Graham family. James Graham settled in the area that is now Rochester and Rochester Hills in 1817, and the Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce counts that as the first settlement in Oakland County. The DDA says the building will also tell the town's farming history with photos, artifacts and old farm tools. A barn on a farmers' market lot, named for the first farmers here, is a deliberate choice.

What the Saturday market at The Graham looks like on paper

The best details come from the DDA board's September 2026 packet, not the press release. Board members agreed on the plan below.

1. The indoor Saturday Market opens Saturday, November 28, 2026.
2. It runs every Saturday through April 24, 2027, except December 26.
3. That adds up to 21 indoor market Saturdays.
4. The 2027 outdoor Farmers' Market season begins May 1, 2027, one week after the last indoor date.

With that schedule, the stretch with no market drops from about six months to a single skipped Saturday after Christmas.

The building has room for 22 vendors, each in an 8-foot-by-8-foot space. The DDA asked its current vendors whether they'd come indoors, first in conversation and then with a formal survey. Thirteen wanted a full season, four wanted half a season, and ten wanted select dates. That makes 27 interested vendors for 22 spaces. The DDA's market page now says the Saturday Market at The Graham is sold out for the season.

Here are the space rates the board discussed:

Spread over 21 Saturdays, a $450 full-season space costs a vendor a little over $21 a week, about half the $40 daily rate. That pricing rewards vendors who come every week, and weekly regulars are what make a winter market worth the trip in February.

The board also discussed expanding the hours of Caroline Hill, one of the current Market Managers, to a part-time role averaging no more than 24 hours a week as The Graham opens. And a group called the Rochester Pollinators offered to plant and pay for a pollinator garden at the building. The board asked Trevarrow to work with another person on it.

The public sources don't list indoor market hours yet. Check with the DDA before your first winter visit.

Who is coming inside

So far, only one vendor has publicly confirmed plans to use the building. Barbara Marriner owns The Cheese Lady in Rochester, which carries about 150 artisan cheeses. She told The Detroit News she's looking forward to selling through the winter. "It's a great opportunity, and we're excited about it," she said.

The outdoor 2026 vendor list shows the kind of mix the market has built. It includes Asterism Artisan Chocolate, a Rochester business; Black Ichor Coffee, a small Michigan roaster with a coffee cart; Brickhouse Kitchen Catering, known for quarts of soup and grilled cheese made on site; and The Chubby Batch, a cookie bakery from Ferndale. The DDA notes that attendance varies from week to week, and it hasn't said which of these vendors took indoor spaces.

Two things stay the same. The DDA says the market accepts Michigan EBT and Double Up Food Bucks, and leashed dogs are welcome. The lot also stays open for parking on non-event days.

The building opens before the market does

The Graham's public calendar starts weeks before the indoor market. DDA materials put a ribbon cutting on Monday, October 19, at 5:30 p.m., followed by the Rochester State of the City. The town's yearly civic address will take place in the new building before it ever hosts a Saturday market.

Next is the Festival of Trees, which is moving into The Graham this year. It starts with a preview party on November 20, and the public can visit November 21 and 22. Two DDA pages list different Saturday hours, so check the event listing before you go. Then comes November 28, which is the grand opening, the first indoor Saturday Market, and Small Business Saturday all at once.

Before all that, October still belongs to the outdoor market. The DDA calendar lists it on October 3, 10, 24 and 31, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. On October 17, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., Downtown Trick-or-Treat & Halloween Fest sends families through downtown shops and ends with a fest in the Farmers' Market lot, right next to the new building.

Who paid for it

The Detroit News reported the full project cost at $4.4 million. American Rescue Plan Act money, which Oakland County passed to the city through its Main Street program, covers $931,000. The rest comes from the DDA's capture of property taxes in the downtown district. That works out to the federal grant paying for roughly a fifth of the building and downtown's own tax capture paying for the rest. Trevarrow said the DDA had been saving for more than four years to pay for it.

That's why the indoor market schedule matters as much as the ribbon cutting. A building paid for mostly by the downtown district needs regular use, and 21 winter Saturdays with a waitlist of interested vendors is a strong start. Vendors who want a spot in the 2027 outdoor market can already submit interest through the DDA.

When something like The Graham opens, it changes how downtown works week to week, including in the off months. That's the kind of local detail Deborah Gannes follows, and it matters when you're deciding whether a home a few blocks from Third and Water fits your plans. If you'd like to talk through what Rochester's year-round downtown means for your own move, schedule a free consultation.