"Access Local Food Year-Round." That line sits at the top of the High Peaks Farmers' Markets winter market page, and the schedule underneath it backs it up. The indoor market in the Hotel Saranac lobby runs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. through December 19. Park It, the pre-order curbside pickup at the same hotel, runs Saturday mornings into May, through May 9.
So the lobby is the short season. The curb is the long one. On this year's calendar, the indoor market fills eight Saturdays and curbside-only pickup fills nearly twenty. If you've been treating mid-December as the end of local eggs and sausage until the outdoor market comes back, the market runs on a different schedule than that.
Two schedules, one market
The organization lists three markets on its site: a Saranac Lake market from May through October, a Lake Placid market from July through September, and the Saranac Lake winter market. In other words, the cold-season food supply for this part of the region comes through a hotel lobby on Main Street.
Getting there takes a handoff each fall. The 2026 season opened with the High Peaks Harvest Festival on Main Street outside the Hotel Saranac on October 17, and the indoor market began the following Saturday, October 24. The festival is still new. When the Adirondack Daily Enterprise covered the second annual edition last October, it described a village partnership with the market and called the festival the last outdoor market day before the move indoors. Sun Community News framed the 2025 festival the same way in its September preview, pairing the event with the market's seasonal move to the Hotel Saranac.
The model behind both formats stays the same. The market calls itself the only "producer-only" farmers' market in the eastern Adirondacks, which means vendors sell only what they or their employees produce. The lobby tables, the online orders and the bags handed through car windows all come from the same farms.
Six lobby Saturdays left
As of this week, two indoor Saturdays have passed and six remain. One Saturday is off the list. The market closes the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 28, to give vendors what its page calls "a much-deserved rest."
The lobby is at 100 Main Street, the same stretch the rest of the town's November and December calendar keeps returning to. Here is how the remaining market Saturdays line up with what else is listed around them.
| Market Saturday | Around it in town |
|---|---|
| November 7 | Berkeley Dive's local-artist opening the night before, Friday, November 6, 6 to 8 p.m. |
| November 14 | Final day of Pendragon Theatre's Julius Caesar run, November 11 to 14 |
| November 21 | NCCC holiday craft fair the next day, Sunday, November 22 |
| November 28 | No market; Thanksgiving week |
| December 5 | Kids' holiday craft fair at the Free Library, Sparkle Village Craft Fair, Santa Saturday at the Adirondack Carousel |
| December 12 | Pendragon's A Christmas Carol, Santa Saturday at the Carousel |
| December 19 | Last indoor market; Pendragon's A Christmas Carol; Santa Saturday at the Carousel |
Pendragon's Julius Caesar is adapted and directed by Alyssa May Gold, with five public performances at 56 Woodruff Street. A Christmas Carol, adapted and directed by Sarah Norris, follows at the same address December 9 through 20. Berkeley Dive at 17 Woodruff Street pairs each of its local-artist openings with an "Artist's Choice" cocktail, and it holds a second one on Friday, December 4. The NCCC fair runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sparks Athletic Complex, 23 Santanoni Avenue.
December 5 packs the most into a short walk. The Saranac Lake Free Library's free kids' holiday craft fair runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Cantwell Room at 109 Main Street, across the street from the market's block. The Sparkle Village Craft Fair is set for 39 Main Street on December 4 and 5. The Adirondack Carousel's Santa Saturdays start at 1 p.m., the hour the market closes, on December 5, 12, 19 and 26. The Carousel also holds a Christmas celebration on Sunday, December 20, at 1 p.m.
Thanksgiving week runs on its own schedule. The 12th annual Bitters & Bones Turkey Trot starts at 65 Broadway at 8 a.m. on November 26, with in-person registration at 7 a.m. The $25 registration benefits the Interfaith Food Pantry and the Student Needs Fund. If the holiday meal is happening out of the house, Lakeside Drift at 250 Lake Flower Avenue lists a Thanksgiving buffet from 2 to 8 p.m. at $55 for adults and $20 for children. The Belvedere at 102 Bloomingdale Avenue lists one from 3 to 7 p.m. Both recommend reservations. With the market closed two days later, the November 21 Saturday is the last chance to stock up at the lobby tables before the holiday.
What's on the shared shelf this year
The big change this season is on the curbside side. The market has moved Park It to a new Local Line storefront that puts several vendors in one online shop, so one order collects products from multiple farms and you pick it all up in one place.
The storefront lists six participating vendors:
- The Cook Farm
- Harmony Hills Farmstead
- Juniper Hill Farm
- Triple Green Jade
- Mace Chasm Farm
- Peaks and Pines Bakery
Current listings include bacon and ground pork from Mace Chasm Farm, plus bacon-cheddar brats and breakfast sausage from Harmony Hills Farmstead. That's the kind of freezer-friendly stock that makes curbside pickup work in January, when a Saturday morning on Main Street means scraping a windshield.
The shared storefront matters more after December 19 than before it. Through mid-December you can walk the lobby and buy from each table. After that, the storefront is the market, so having every vendor in one cart replaces the walk from table to table.
After December 19, the curb on Academy Street
Once the lobby closes, the routine moves around the corner. The market's FAQ describes it this way:
- Shop the participating vendors online through the market's winter market page, which links to the Local Line storefront.
- Place your order ahead of Saturday.
- Drive to the Hotel Saranac and turn onto Academy Street, where orders are handed out behind the hotel.
- Pick up on Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon.
The pickup window is an hour shorter than the indoor market's, so the late-morning stop that worked in November needs to move earlier.
Park It skips one Saturday all winter: Winter Carnival parade day. That's the day Main Street turns over to the parade, and the market steps aside for it. Every other Saturday from the end of December into May keeps the same window and the same corner.
The first curbside-only Saturday is December 26, which is also the Carousel's last Santa Saturday of the year at 1 p.m. Collect your order between 10 and noon, and you have an hour before the Carousel event starts.
Order deadlines, payment options and any fees are set on the storefront, so check highpeaksfarmersmarkets.com before your first order of the season rather than going by how it worked in past years.
For a broader look at why so much of downtown's recent activity keeps landing in the same few blocks, our earlier piece on why every new thing in downtown Saranac Lake lands on the same block covers the rail trail and river walk side of that story. More on the village is on our Saranac Lake neighborhood page.
If you're weighing what a full winter of Saturdays on Main Street and Academy Street would look like as an owner here, Bob Miller Real Estate is glad to walk you through it. Contact Bob for a local market consult.
