Last Saturday was the final day of the 2026 Iowa City Farmers Market. It closed out the season with Halloween at the Market: kids trick-or-treated at the vendor tables, a costume parade gathered on the north side of the Chauncey Swan Parking Ramp at 10 a.m., and families could decorate a pumpkin to take home. Electric Ear DJ had the last Market Music slot of a lineup Summer of the Arts has booked every Saturday since May 2.
The City of Iowa City's market page says the market runs from the first Saturday in May through the last Saturday in October. Many of the same farms keep selling through the winter. What goes away is the single weekly Saturday stop. From now until spring, buying from local growers depends on knowing which day of the week each option runs.
Two Saturdays Out of Twenty-Five
There are 25 Saturdays between now and the first Saturday in May. The City holds a market on two of them. The Iowa City Holiday Markets take place on November 14 and December 5, 2026, inside the Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center at 220 S. Gilbert St.
That building should be familiar to regular market-goers. All summer, the City listed the lot behind the Rec Center as free parking during market hours, along with the upper levels of the Chauncey Swan Ramp. For two weekends, the market itself moves into the building next to that lot.
Here's how the setup changes:
| Regular season | Holiday Markets | |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | Every Saturday, May 2 to Oct. 31, 2026 | Saturday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026 |
| Hours | 7:30 a.m. to noon | 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Setting | Chauncey Swan Parking Ramp, the 400 block of E. Washington St. and Chauncey Park | First-floor gym and second-floor social hall, Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center, with no entry fee for shoppers |
The hours are the easiest detail to get wrong. The summer market opened at 7:30 and closed at noon. The holiday version opens half an hour later and runs an hour past noon, according to the City's event listings for November 14 and December 5. If you're used to showing up at 7:30 for the best produce, you'll be early, and the doors won't be open yet.
The Iowa City Downtown District also lists the event and names Iowa City Parks & Recreation as the organizer. The City describes the Holiday Markets as a chance to buy handmade gifts while supporting local farmers and artisans, with seasonal products and food for sale. In other words, it's part gift fair and part farmers market. The vendor list shows both sides.
Who Is on the Holiday Market Map
The City's 2026 Holiday Market map covers both dates and includes these food and farm vendors:
- 6M Farms, listed as "Madsen's Goat Milk Soap and alpacas"
- Four Winds Farm LLC
- Grimm's Farm
- Midwest Fresh Farms
- Nonna Mancini Veggies
- Phillips Family Farm
- Pickle Creek Herbs
- Rehberg's Pork
- Rots Bounty Gourmet Fungi
Makers such as 12 Crystal Moons and A&S Leather are on the same map. The City says the map is still being updated as it works through vendor applications, so check it again the week of each market. The vendor policies from the regular season still apply indoors. The only change is the location.
Pork, mushrooms, herbs and vegetables are all on the list. That's enough to plan a real grocery run around the Holiday Markets, not just a gift trip. The catch is that after December 5, there are no more of these Saturdays until May.
The Rest of the Week Picks Up the Slack
Outside those two dates, local food in the Iowa City area runs on other days of the week. Johnson County's local foods guide and the farms' own sites lay out a schedule that looks like this:
| Day | Where | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Every other Sunday, November to April | Johnson County Market, Johnson County Fairgrounds, Building C, 4261 Oak Crest Hill Rd. | Indoor market; last season's dates ran 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Sunday 5 p.m. to Tuesday noon | Field to Family online market | Household ordering window |
| Wednesday, 5 to 6 p.m. | Echollective Farm, 1003 Ginter Ave. | CSA pickup, ending with a Holiday Double Share the second week of November |
| Thursday, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. | Field to Family pickup sites, including Pepperwood Plaza, 1067 Hwy. 6 | Pickup or delivery of that week's order |
Sunday at the fairgrounds. The Johnson County Market is the closest thing to a weekly Saturday market in the winter. It's indoors, it runs on alternate Sundays from November through April, and it's out at the fairgrounds south of town instead of downtown. A February 8, 2026 listing from last season placed it in Building C from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The county's page is the place to check for this season's Sundays.
The Sunday-to-Thursday loop. Field to Family makes you plan ahead in a way the Saturday market never did. You order between Sunday at 5 p.m. and Tuesday at noon, then pick up Thursday between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. or choose delivery. Field to Family's own page names its South District warehouse as the Thursday pickup spot, and the county guide also lists Pepperwood Plaza on Highway 6 as an Iowa City pickup point. The household market runs weekly "from Earth Day to the winter solstice," then switches to monthly in January, February and March. If you're reading this on Thursday, today is a pickup day, and the next order window opens Sunday evening.
Wednesday on Ginter Avenue. Echollective Farm's 2026 CSA started the week of May 25 and finishes with a Holiday Double Share in the second week of November. Its Iowa City pickup is Wednesday from 5 to 6 p.m. at 1003 Ginter Ave. For members, that last pickup comes before the first Holiday Market.
Where the Farm Names Show Up in January
Put those schedules together and the winter gets thinner as it goes. By the end of the second week of November, the Echollective share is done. The Holiday Markets end on December 5. Field to Family's weekly ordering stops at the winter solstice and becomes monthly in January, February and March. Wilson's Orchard & Farm says it's open to visitors February through December, and its Farm Market sells locally grown produce and goods from local makers for online delivery or pickup. That leaves January as the one month Wilson's is closed.
January is the leanest month. The Johnson County Market's Sunday schedule keeps going through April, and Field to Family offers its monthly ordering. The rest is the grocery shelf. New Pioneer Co-op says it stocks local products and contracts with vegetable growers. Among its farm partners it names Abbe Hills Farm, 20 miles from the co-op, and Garden Oasis Farm and Buffalo Ridge Orchard, each 24 miles away. In January, the farm names you saw all summer at the ramp are more likely to show up on a shelf tag than at a booth.
That's the full winter schedule. Two Saturday mornings at the Rec Center on November 14 and December 5, a Sunday market at the fairgrounds every other week through April, a weekly Thursday pickup until the solstice and a monthly one through March, Wilson's from February, and the co-op the rest of the time. It all leads back to the first Saturday in May, when the City's market page says the market returns to the Chauncey Swan Ramp. In the meantime, there's more to do downtown than shop. The Iowa City Book Festival and the restaurants returning downtown are good places to start.
At Blank and McCune, The Real Estate Company, we've been part of Iowa City since 1979, and the market calendar is part of our own Saturdays too. If you'd like to know which streets are an easy walk to the Chauncey Swan Ramp in summer and to the Rec Center on November 14, one of our agents is happy to talk it through. Find Your Agent.
