Starting the first Wednesday in November, the Oaks Banquet Rooms at the Eagan Community Center fill with folding tables for a few hours in the late afternoon. The City says to expect bread, baked goods, sauces, cheese, body products and artisan items. There's no admission charge.
For a lot of the people behind those tables, this room is the closest thing they have to a shop. Once Eagan Market Fest packs up for the season, these Wednesdays plus each maker's own order-and-pickup system become the main ways to buy food made in Eagan.
Roughly 75 kitchens and one cookie shop
The City of Eagan's Q3 2026 business newsletter cites the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's count of roughly 75 cottage food businesses operating in Eagan. Minnesota has allowed these small producers since 2015. They make and sell certain foods from home kitchens without a license, under strict rules the state lays out in its cottage food guidance.
Home kitchens don't come with a front door customers can walk into. The same newsletter profiles three of these producers, and all three describe building a following through markets, craft fairs, social media and word of mouth.
T-Rex Cookie Co., founded in Eagan by Tina Rexing roughly a decade ago, has a shop at 525 Diffley Road, Suite 2080. Its cookies are sold at U.S. Bank Stadium during Minnesota Vikings games, and the newsletter reports sales up 30% in the first quarter of 2026 and 11% in the second. Behind the shop is a commercial kitchen, and Gregory's Foods, another Eagan company, scales her 80-pound dough recipes up to 800 pounds.
The newsletter also lists Eagan's larger food manufacturers: Catallia Mexican Foods, CKC Good Food, Gregory's Foods, Rich Products, Rise Baking Company and Sushi Avenue, and all of them sell mainly to retailers, restaurants, schools and other institutions. The city has been making food for others for a long time. Between 1840 and 1930, Eagan grew and shipped so many onions that it was dubbed the Onion Capital of the U.S. The food you can actually carry home from a local maker this winter mostly comes through smaller channels.
The Wednesday calendar for the rest of 2026
The Eagan Indoor Market runs 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on select Wednesdays in the Oaks Banquet Rooms. The City's Community Events page lists these dates for the rest of 2026:
- Wednesday, Nov. 4
- Wednesday, Nov. 18
- Wednesday, Dec. 2
- Wednesday, Dec. 16
- Wednesday, Dec. 30
The market continues in 2027 on Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 10 and April 14.
Some details help with planning. The markets fall every other Wednesday through December, so there are two before Thanksgiving and two in the run-up to Christmas. The Dec. 30 market falls between the holidays, which is handy for anyone hosting a New Year's gathering. Some older City pages still show last season's dates and 4 to 7 p.m. hours, so go by the current Community Events calendar.
The City suggests subscribing to the Market Fest email list at cityofeagan.com/marketfest for updates. Last season, the City's listing for the March 2026 Indoor Market said the vendor list would be posted on Facebook the week of the event, so expect each market's lineup to be confirmed only a few days ahead.
How to buy from the makers who bake at home
Since vendor lineups change from week to week, it helps to know how each maker sells when there's no market that day.
Fiddlesticks Bakery. Jennifer Casper's home bakery makes only gluten-free food. In the City's newsletter, she said she started by asking gluten-free friends what they missed most:
"Gluten-free cinnamon rolls was the first recipe I mastered, and I opened with only cinnamon rolls on the menu. Soon people started to know Fiddlesticks as the gluten-free cinnamon-roll place."
Fiddlesticks has no storefront. You order online, items are baked to order, and pickup in Eagan is on Fridays and Saturdays. Nearby delivery is available, and the bakery asks customers to get in touch about other pickup days. Its homepage also promotes the Indoor Market's Nov. 4 start. For a Thanksgiving table or a December brunch, place the order early in the week so the Friday or Saturday pickup works.
Leo's Pops. Andrew Kasun's frozen juice pops are gluten-free and dairy-free, with a crunchy center the company calls Crunch Core. Meet the Minnesota Makers reported in August 2026 that the pops debuted at Eagan Market Fest and that special orders can be requested by email once the summer market season ends. The company's posted 2026 calendar runs through its summer Market Fest dates and September events, so for now a holiday party order goes through email at [email protected] or the Leo's Pops site, which takes special-event orders.
Holmade Kitchen. Heather Holm makes more than 10 flavors of homemade fudge. In the City's newsletter, she said she shares "plenty of fudge photos on social media" and keeps followers "updated on craft fairs Holmade Kitchen will attend." Fudge is a classic December gift, and following her social accounts is the way to find out which fairs she'll be at.
T-Rex Cookie Co. The Diffley Road shop is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. T-Rex also sells online for shipping or pickup in Eagan and lists select Minnesota stores that carry its cookies. The City's newsletter says Time Out named T-Rex the best cookie in the U.S. In fact, Time Out's August 26, 2025 list of the best cookies in America ranks it eighth, which is still a national list for a cookie baked in Eagan. The company also ships, which makes it an easy pick for relatives out of town.
Who else sold from a summer Market Fest table
The City's Market Fest vendor page, last updated in August 2026, lists a wider group of food sellers. Not all of them are based in Eagan, and the page notes that vendor schedules vary, so treat this as a list of who has sold to Eagan shoppers, not a promise of who will be at any given Wednesday:
- Budd's Bleu: bleu cheese dressing and dip
- Dueling Grandmas LLC: shortbread cookies
- Gray Duck Syrup Co.: cocktail and mocktail mixes, flavored simple syrups
- Great Harvest Bread Co.: scratch-made baked goods
- HomeTown Creamery: ice cream, cones, bowls and floats
- Katrina's Caramels: caramels
- Mama Bear's Bakehouse: sourdough, cookies, muffins and bars
- Mogi Bagel: bagels and cream cheese
- Pampered Pork: fresh and frozen pork
- Ruhland's Strudel Haus: ready-to-eat and frozen take-and-bake strudel
Several of these fit the holidays well, including shortbread, caramels, syrups for a holiday cocktail or mocktail, and strudel you can bake from frozen. If one of them is on your list, check the Facebook vendor post the week of each market before you drive over.
Filling the weekends between the Wednesdays
The Wednesday markets cover weekday afternoons. Weekend options come from a few City events and the makers' own pickup days.
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The Winter Art Sale at the Eagan Community Center. The City says everything for sale is made locally by the seller, but this one is for artwork, so think gifts rather than groceries.
- Dec. 4 to 6: Rose Craft Shows lists a Holiday Craft and Gift Show at the Eagan Community Center. The listing doesn't give hours or a vendor list, so check it again closer to the date.
- Sunday, Dec. 6, noon to 3 p.m.: Old Fashioned Holiday at Historic Holz Farm Park, with a self-guided tour, a hayride, Santa and his reindeer, and s'mores at the bonfire. Santa takes photos on the porch from noon to 2:45 p.m.
Add Fiddlesticks' Friday and Saturday pickups and the T-Rex shop's weekend hours, and you have something to buy from an Eagan maker almost every week between now and New Year's. The first Indoor Market is Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 3:30 p.m. in the Oaks Banquet Rooms.
If your holiday planning also includes the bigger question of whether this is the right time to stay put, move up or downsize, Mike is glad to talk it through over coffee, cookie optional. Finstad Real Estate offers a free consultation and home valuation, with no pressure and plenty of local knowledge about Eagan and the rest of the southern Twin Cities.
