Havre de Grace Winters Farmers Market celebrates 50 years

The local natural foods co-op has been a community staple since 1975.

Published on Mar. 5, 2026

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

The Havre de Grace Winters Farmers Market, a local natural foods cooperative that has been a community staple since 1975, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend with a special event featuring live music, food, games, giveaways, and more than 25 vendor booths.

Why it matters

In a neighborhood marked with high retail turnover and the rise of big-box chains, the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative has rejected corporate norms, kept a loyal clientele, and chosen a unique model based on community-based values and worker ownership.

The details

Rainbow Grocery stayed in business and built up a local following through pandemic-era buying shifts and customer displacement by embracing values-based and hard-to-find items in product categories such as homeopathic bath and beauty products, herbal medicines, organic produce, specialty vegan, and goods from environmentally conscious brands.

  • Rainbow Grocery opened in the summer of 1975.
  • Rainbow is celebrating its anniversary this Sunday (August 17, 2025).

The players

Rainbow Grocery Cooperative

A local food natural foods grocery store, organized as an employee-owned co-op and born out of a 1970s grassroots natural food movement calling for access to nutritious and organic food.

Gordon Edgar

A 31-year employee who oversees Rainbow's cheese counter.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“Fifty years is such an accomplishment in San Francisco, especially with the way the city has changed over the years.”

— Gordon Edgar, grocery employee (Instagram)

The takeaway

In an era of private equity-owned supermarkets, San Francisco's largest independent natural food store remains worker-owned and committed to organic food—proving mission-driven retail can survive and community values can endure.