August 26th 2023 Farmers Market

Market Review August 19^th 2023

By Paul Bullock & Mary Gates

Thank you to Chad Plunket with Charles Adams Studio Project! We have a few Market dates that conflict with events booked at the LHUCA Plaza, and we have to scramble for another spot. This is the second time Chad and CASP have come to the rescue, and offered us their front area for our Market.

The change creates a bit of a dilemma for the staff. Where to put everybody? Our vendors showed up and our staff directed each to a predetermined spot. The set up went well, even though we were on strange ground. We had a very good vendor turn out. Our canopies were placed so that it became a meandering maze of colorful booths. It was quite charming in fact. As a kid in school I remember how exciting it was just to rearrange our seating. It was kinda like that. Our shoppers showed up early and our regular customers seemed to enjoy the alternate location. I think that the vendors enjoy a curve ball every once in awhile to keep things interesting and new.

We had a great turn out this week with new folks coming to Lubbock from Minnesota and Washington. We really enjoy talking to people new to Lubbock and we hope that they feel right at home. The support we are getting from our area communities is great! People from our surrounding farming communities show up as well. I spoke with a couple of men from Abernathy and Floydada who were happy to do a little drive time to experience our Market. We also had some overflow from Two Docs Brewery who were having an Alien Fest with some great Alien costuming and vendors of their own. We hope some of our shoppers stopped by for a brew and a little Alien interaction.

We are in full summer swing now. What we are experiencing is an abundance of fresh farm grown produce. We are getting beautiful assorted peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, squash, cucumbers, corn and so much more. Fruits like peaches and cantaloupe are available. We have about two more months of Markets and expect the farmers to have great produce to bring each week. Whatever you might be looking for can be found at our Market. Baked goods, local wines, sauces and homemade jams and jellies. We have all types of Artisans with all types of handmade craftwork for you to examine. We are excited to have such a wide variety of vendors that participate in our Market.

Our dog friends showed up as usual, and we are happy to present our weekly award of Tornado Industrial/Arts Dog of the Day to Bowie, who just happens to have an owner who is a huge David Bowie fan. Sounds good to me. Congratulations Bowie! Last week we had our first Tornado Industrial/Arts Bird of the Day. A beautiful Cockatoo. Well for the second week in a row we had a shopper bring their pet bird. This week we are happy to have Socks the feather footed chicken as our Bird of the Day. Thanks for stopping by Socks. We are having a great time bringing you the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market each Saturday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Plaza at LHUCA located at 5^th and Ave. J. We hope to see you there soon.

Another new vendor this season (isn’t it great there have been so many?) is BARN TO TABLE, a family run business that offers an array of baked, freeze dried, and fresh food. Adam Van Liew and his son Isiah are the front men for Amy Van Liew, who creates most of the items (including their logo). They have a lovely variety of sour dough breads with different flavors, the starter for which has been alive for 6 years. Their Colossus Cookies are mighty tasty! The freeze dried fruits and vegetables are good for years, great for camping or a way to add veggies to a winter soup or stew. I bought one of their baby cantaloupes…so sweet! Come down and check ’em out!

We would like to thank everyone who came out to the August 19^th market and we hope to see you next week from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM at 5^th Street and Avenue J for the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market at the LHUCA Plaza.