About

Four Seasons Local Market began in the summer of 2016 as a meeting of four families around a dining room table discussing how to best reach the summer market consumers through all four seasons of the year. The vision evolved into Four Seasons Local Market at 216 East Main Street in Crawfordsville. The market offers beef, pork, lamb, chickens, eggs, coffee, homemade heat and serve meals, honey, syrup, and a variety of homemade baked goods. We pride ourselves on offering our customers the opportunity to ask questions, try new things, and build a relationship with their farmers and bakers. We also showcase products from various other local producers rounding out our offerings and making sure we have something for everyone wanting to support local food production and see the local faces making and growing your food. We invite you to learn more about our individual farms below and stop in to see what we have to offer to you!

Shady Rail Bakery & Catering

www.shadyrailfarm.com

Shady Rail Farm was established in 1995 when Patrick & Jenny Beasley purchased 45 hilly acres set between Veedersburg & Hillsboro.  The Beasley's have two grown children; a daughter, Kayla, who is in nursing school and a son, Creston, who is serving his country in the US Air Force.
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Jenny's love for canning and baking began when the couple married in 1994. Since then they have always planted a garden, grown their own berries, and canned produce. In 2007, Jenny started going to the local farmers market with canned goods & fresh baked goods.

Fast forward to 2012...The Beasley's were having great success with both baked goods & canned goods at the Crawfordsville Farmers Market & with custom orders.  So, why not take a big step and build a certified kitchen on their farm, that would allow the business to grow.  With the addition of a certified kitchen, the couple started catering.

Being active in the farmers market, holiday bazaars, and catering events, the couple is able to get to know their customers.  They love that they are able to talk with their customers and see them face to face.  Customers can find out what is in the food they are feeding their families, they can see who makes their food, and they can understand that Shady Rail strives to give them the highest quality product available. Everything is made from scratch, homemade in the bakery.  Jenny still uses the rolling pin & pie dough recipe that her Grandma Dorothy used to make all her pies with that she sold to restaurants many years ago.  The couple wants their customers to be happy and always ready to come back for more treats! ​

Silver Valley Farm

www.silvervalleyfarm.com

We are passionate about growing healthy, great-tasting lamb to share within our local community. We enjoy teaching others how simple it is to cook with this delicious meat. We are third generation livestock farmers from Oregon with a passion for providing our community with locally-raised lamb from fertile fields of grass. Our lambs are raised on pasture, without antibiotics or growth hormones, and are available to you year round as individual cuts or whole and half lambs cut to your specifications. From our pasture to your table, we offer flavorful lamb you’ll love!

Silver Valley Farm is located 25 miles south of Lafayette, Indiana and 45 miles northwest of Indianapolis. We are a small farm raising Hampshire, Polypay, Border & Blue Faced Leicester sheep and sell lamb and wool products directly to consumers. Our sheep are raised traditionally on pasture; the way our grandparents raised sheep on the farm. We grow a variety of forage for rotational grazing and we purchase quality hay from local farmers to feed our sheep when grass is not available. Our focus is on producing the best quality lamb to sell to our customers and we would never sell anything we would not put on our own table.

We raise approximately 90 lambs per year that are processed at local state inspected facilities allowing us to sell directly to the consumer. A variety of frozen lamb cuts are available at Four Seasons Local Market, or you may contact us by phone or email. Additionally, we sell whole or half lambs, cut to your specifications to provide a cost effective way to feed your family quality lamb. 

​Beyond local, flavorful cuts of lamb, Silver Valley Farm offers a variety of other products. We sell brown eggs from our pastured hens, hand dyed and natural colored farm yarn, roving and wool dryer balls made from our flock’s wool. Wendy makes hand soap and small batch ice cream at a commercial kitchen nearby.  Be sure to check out the ice cream flavors in our weekly newsletter.

Shannon Family Farms

www.shannonfamilyfarms.com

​Shannon Family Farms was started in July of 2004 by Jonathan & Kelly Shannon with a farmhouse, 9 acres, and a small herd of Boer Goats. As time went on, the farm evolved to what it has become today. At Shannon Family Farms, we strive to raise animals in the most responsible way possible while meeting the demands and needs of our family and customers alike.

Jonathan and Kelly both work fulltime off the farm and are employed in local school systems as an educator and administrator. Along with their 3 daughters, raising cows, pigs, chickens, and goats has become a family affair. The farm was the ideal location to settle because within 3 miles of Shannon Family Farms there are 5 other farms in the family. Each one has a focus of their own, but they combine to share machinery and other resources.

The boundaries of the farm have not changed since 2004, however, the facilities have changed dramatically. Upon moving in, the farmhouse began renovations to bring it into the modern era and those renovations continue to today. Shortly after settling in, a farm shop was constructed to house all the necessities for keeping equipment running and making necessary repairs. When the decision was made to bring layer chickens to the farm, a chicken coop was built to meet the demands of our egg laying flock. The late 1800s main barn has had some preservation work and remodeling done to keep it as a fully functional barn that will likely last another 130 years. An addition was made to the original farmhouse in 2012 to meet the needs of the growing family.
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As time went on, it became evident that small scale, niche market, livestock production would be the focus for Shannon Family Farms. Beef cattle, swine, meat and layer chickens, and meat goats were chosen as the main livestock species to graze our pastures.

​We breed our own cattle to have total control of their food intake their entire lives. If feeder cattle are purchased, they are brought to the farm at weaning from local, trusted farmers. Piglets are purchased shortly after weaning from local farmers whom we have built a relationship. These piglets are normally from show strings. Meat chickens are shipped directly from Welp Hatchery as day old chickens. Our layer chickens arrive as day old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery. The goats are brought in from other breeders who we have visited their farm and gotten to know them. An animal is never purchased from livestock auctions and brought to our farm. Through our selective alliances with local farmers and hatcheries, we can ensure our animals are being raised responsibly. Each animal at Shannon Family Farms has a full history that can be provided. That history details where the animal has been and any medicines it has had along with the exact dates. The careful selection of animals ensures your family is purchasing high quality meat and/or eggs from a trusted source.

Gillenwater Farms

Paige and Jordan Gillenwater are passionate about bringing high quality beef and produce to their community. Jordan grew up riding in the tractor alongside his grandfather and now works full time on the farm to continue the tradition of providing safe, high quality products that his grandparents started decades ago. Jordan and Paige have partnered with their family as owners and operators of his grandparents’ farm and market, Hole’s Sweet Corn. Here, customers can find fresh produce picked daily and responsibly raised meats. Paige and Jordan sell beef and produce at their market on the farm and give farm tours on request as an effort to educate consumers on the practices Gillenwater Farms uses.

Beef sold from Gillenwater Farms comes from calves that were born and raised on Paige and Jordan’s Montgomery County farm. Calves and cows always have free access to grass and hay. The calves are offered a rationed blend of locally grown corn with mineral supplements sourced from a local feed mill. All beef from Gillenwater Farms contains absolutely no added hormones or chemicals. The calves and cows love sweets just as much as we do, and sometimes get treats such as apples from the farm or extra sweetcorn from Hole’s Sweetcorn in the summer! Produce is hand picked daily in season and all raised responsibly on our farm.

Jordan and Paige take pride in being part of the long line of farmers in Jordan’s family. They are the 6th generation farming in Montgomery County and owners of a Hoosier Homestead farm that has been in their family since the 1800s. They are proud to be partners of Four Seasons Local Market as of Fall 2019.