Shop for organic produce, art, crafts, artisan foods and more all from local farmers and vendors during the Medford Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Winter Market, held from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and Sunday, Nov. 24 and 26, and Sundays, Dec. 3-17, at The Village at Medford Center, 711 Medford Center, under the coverings near Tinseltown and Tap & Vine. For further details, including information about the organization’s SNAP Double Up Food Bucks program, see rvgrowersmarket.com.

The Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market is back, offering a wide range of local produce and goods from farmers, cultivators and crafters in Southern Oregon.

Returning for its 37th year, the market has more than 150 vendors offering an array of goods.

Those commodities and foodstuffs span from local honey and produce to artisan soap to kombucha.

“With the growers market, you really get the best of what Southern Oregon has to offer and celebrate the community around that,” said Benjamin Wood, owner of pottery store Rogue Stoneware and board member for the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market.

“With the riches of Southern Oregon, we’re incredibly lucky to have all that, from produce to livestock and poultry to the collection of crafts,” Wood added.

Some of those 100-plus traders include: Awen Winecraft, Uber Herbal, Mystic Valley Farm, Em’s Elderberries, Waterleaf Farm, Rick Evans Art, Flying Flatbread and many more.

The growers market currently sets up shop for two days each week in Ashland and Medford, and the market will soon offer another opportunity to purchase local goods on Saturdays beginning in May.

The Ashland Tuesday Market runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, located at 1500 E. Main St.

In Medford, the market runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursdays at the intersection of Hawthorne and East Jackson streets adjacent to the Hawthorne Park Playground.

The forthcoming Ashland Saturday market will open May 4 downtown at the 100 block of Oak Street, with the market running from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

A brand-new change to this year’s Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market is the use of ScienceWorks’ outdoor space for the Tuesday market.

“It’s been pretty well received, the customers like it,” vendor and growers market board member Mike Driggs said.

Offering plenty of spaces to park, the market’s layout gives high visibility for each of the booths as well, Driggs added.

Plus, organizers are excited for patrons to check out the new vendors this year.

There are “lots of new food trucks this year, and we got a new pizza guy which I really like; we haven’t had a pizza vendor here in a few years,” Driggs said of Steel Toe Dough Co.

Driggs’ business, Mike’s Local Fish, offers fresh fish sourced out of Brookings.

The vendor sells “everything from salmon to halibut, lingcod, rockfish, albacore tuna and more,” Driggs said.

Like many other participating business owners, Driggs collaborates with other vendors such as new arrival Steel Toe Dough Co. to give the pizza seller oysters for ingredients, along with creating and strengthening mutually beneficial collaborations and relationships with the other traders.

“I collaborate a lot with the food guys … someone sells crackers, and I tell them about my food dip and vice versa,” Driggs said. “We’re all helping each other out.”

That harmonious relationship extends out to longtime market patrons and first-time visitors as well.

“All of this is a holistic experience, and it’s a really cool thing that you can meet the people who are making things,” Wood said. “How awesome is it to have a community of people sharing such similar journey and place?”

The vendors also reiterated the importance of supporting the local economy and building sustainability by using local goods, ingredients and products.

“You’re supporting local growers, farmers especially, who work so hard to survive,” Driggs said. “You don’t want to get food shipped from out of state that you can get locally.”

“Food security is an issue we don’t think about all time and it really ought to be considered,” Wood said.

The Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market also aims to be available for citizens of varying financial situations, offering the Double Up Food Bucks and Protein Match programs. The programs doubles the food dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at all three market locations.

For more information on the growers market and the Double Up Food Bucks and Protein Match programs, visit rvgrowersmarket.com.