SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome, Boomer listeners. I'm Peggy Sweet, and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio once again with my good friend Lindsay. She's the director of marketing and PR over at the Chamber. Welcome, Lindsay. Hello, thanks for having me. Absolutely. I'm so excited to have you back because now we get to talk about the farmer's market. Yes. I love the farmer's market. I can't believe the season is back. And I know every week you need to go check everything out because as the season goes on, there's more and more produce, and the colors change with the produce and the flowers and all the things. So I'll shut up for a minute and let you talk.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

That is so true. It's it's like a different experience uh every week. And we are in full swing. So just really excited to see the changes and to um see what the vendors bring and to see the the produce starting to become more uh more of a variety, I guess. Yeah, because we do have uh farmers that grow in hoop houses, so they've had some produce. We've seen beets and onions and big giant cabbages and things like that. But um, yeah, we'll start to over the next couple weeks see tomatoes and zucchini and peppers and strawberries, too. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And and it does it, it kind of changes the fabric of the market a little bit because at the beginning of the year we do have um, I mean, we always have really great artisans and bakers and things, but as we fill in with more of the produce, it just oh my gosh, just comes alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

You can do it's just a atmosphere down there that is hard to explain. So you have to experience it. And we haven't told everybody where it's at. It's at Bayless Park, if you don't know, and it runs every Thursday from 4:30 until 7:30. And uh this year through September again. Through September, yeah. Okay. So put it on your calendar, and it's a great way to supplement your grocery list.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

For sure. You can kind of I I walk down and as I'm looking at different ingredients or products, I'm planning at least one recipe in my head. So one of the one of the farmers had these giant cabbages, and I'm like, I have to have that. And this is last year, and I took it home and made cabbage rolls, and then which was the first time I'd ever made them, and it's a process, but man, they were giant leaves, they're so easy to work with, and um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Not something you can duplicate probably from the grocery store. Absolutely. And it's fresh. Absolutely. And it's not just the produce down there though. You have lots of crafters and food trucks. It's a great family evening as well as music.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yes. So we've had some acoustic artists um already in the market, but starting next week, June 11th, we will have our music in the park that is actually produced by Pace. Um changing nights to team up with Farmers Market. We already have a great crowd. They've always had a great crowd at their music in the park. So teaming up on one night, the food trucks are already there. Um, you know, people can start their shopping, maybe grab their dinner and then migrate into um that quadrant of the park where the music will be and spend the whole night, make it make a whole evening of it. And um, we're just really excited that we were able to kind of join these forces together to create a really nice. It's actually almost two months of programming where our city can come and enjoy our community. That is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

And it again, it is the farmers market in Bayless Park. It starts at 4:30 every Thursday, runs until 7:30. There's kids' activities, there's all kinds of crafting their food, music. It's all the things in one evening at Farmers Market Council Bluffs in Bayless Park. Lindsay, as always, thank you so much for stopping in and tucking all the things farmers market with me. I see you out there at the market as well as around town real soon. Sounds good. This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.