04
Jun
LDFM June 3, 2023 Market Review
By Paul Bullock & Mary Gates
With all the rain we have had there was a threat that we might not be able to pull off our second Market of the season. First Friday Art Trail was drastically affected by a heavy down pour that dropped the number of vendors and the pedestrian traffic. We woke up to heavy cloud cover, but no rain. Our set up was filled with laughs and friendly greetings. The forecast looked good and the energy was high after such a successful Market the prior week. We added more vendors for week number two, and that is a great sign that the word is out and vendors are anxious to find a spot with the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market.
Although the shoppers arrived a little slower than last week’s swarm, it was a steady stream of people coming and going. The pace was exactly what we hope to establish on a weekly basis. We always look for the frequent shoppers, but we know our success depends on new visitors and travelers passing through Lubbock who are looking for things to explore while they are here. I spoke with visitors from New Mexico and Arizona. We value those shoppers and encourage people to send summer’s visitors our way. The morning cloud cover cleared as the morning progressed and the sun came out, which added to the good vibe we have going at the Market. We are creating a fun space for people to visit on Saturday morning. Let’s be clear, we are providing a clean, safe, wheelchair friendly space with more than just local small businesses to explore. There are several art galleries in the area to check out, and our friend and neighbor Two Docs is open for our shoppers if a late morning or early afternoon brew might be what you are looking for. This makes our market quite unique, and a place that definitely should be on everybody’s To-Do list. We had plenty of families with strollers and wagons all loaded with kids. This is a wonderful place for families to spend an hour or two on a Saturday morning experiencing our vibrant market.
And we are very dog friendly. There are so many beautiful dogs visiting with their people, some with costumes and skirts, and it adds such a neighborhood-like feel to the Market. Each week we award one dog the title of Tornado Industrial/Arts Dog of the Week. This week, however, we doubled up with Kennedy and Kingston. Looks to me like they are keeping it in the family! We appreciate and congratulate them both!
It will be difficult to reproduce our first week, at Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts but we feel that we have, in the first two weeks established our Market as a vibrant, healthy farmers market with a great variety of vendors and food trucks. We believe it will only get better as we continue to work to improve and expand our Market. We would like to thank those who have come out to support us in our first two weeks and invite everybody to come by 5th and Ave. J. every Saturday morning from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. just to see what we are creating for the citizens of Lubbock and our visitors. We hope to make everybody feel welcomed and valued.
We also like to spotlight a vendor each week, and we’d like to tell you about Vanessa Rautis with SACRED EARTH THERAPIES. She has a lovely and varied array of self-care products. Mineral foot soaks, shampoo/conditioning bars, aluminum-free deodorant, and a variety of soaps. The soaps are goats milk/ honey/ or oatmeal based, and come in many forms and colors. Vanessa says she started creating these products 8 years ago when she was pregnant in order to eliminate toxins in her body products. Over time, it became clear that juggling a job as a lactation consultant/duela, being a home schooling mom, and making these products was too much. Now Vanessa creates her line exclusively, and Sacred Earth can be found in Tumbleweed Botanicals and Nature’s Tonic stores, as well as our LDFM. Welcome Vanessa!