Walking outdoors in December carries a special allure. Often, it is cold – but not frigid; damp – but not soaking wet; gray but crisp. It is nature – like a cat – beginning to curl up for the winter’s nap, fully fed and content. Much of what the Saratoga Farmers’ Market represents in its winter months interacts with this sense of nature. During December particularly, several farmers and vendors of handicraft items are offering special items that invite shoppers to join the indulgence with nature. Check out the corn husk angels that Bliss White McIntosh has handcrafted from the husks of locally grown popcorn, goldenrod pods, and dried milkweed. Or the intricate “pocket gardens” for office desks, kitchen tables, or other tiny locations created by Kate Brittenham with native species as the focus. Consider the soaps, lip balms, and candles made by Megan Canell of Creations and Spells, and the nature-inspired designs of Gretchen Tisch with the Feathered Antler. And visit Kathleen O’Reilly’s Northern Star Vineyards booth for her Marquette red wine, aged in Washington County oak. Many of these products come from found items. Behind each lies a storyline intrinsic to nature. McIntosh, for instance, is a gardener and basket maker. When she is not making corn husk angels, she is immersed in such projects as the community garden housed at the Cambridge schools. The garden includes a three sisters planting of the indigenous corn, beans, and squash companion combination. Her three sisters include Blue Hopi corn, red Vermont cranberry beans, and butternut squash. The students celebrated with a colorful harvest feast that included the blue corn, the red beans, and the glorious orange hue of butternut squash soup. By making angels from husks and silks – essentially the throwaway parts of the corn we eat – McIntosh stretches the life of a plant longer. That philosophy also infuses Brittenham’s pocket gardens. Brittenham is a Skidmore College graduate who majored in Environmental Studies. Her container gardens for homes, offices, and dorms are composed of native species grown often from seed she collected herself. “I’m a believer in genetic diversity and I want to perpetuate species,” she says. “Making these gardens is one way to prolong life and to build awareness among others.” The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is held at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through April.