September 16th 2023 Farmers Market

Market Review Sept. 9^th

By Paul Bullock & Mary Gates

The morning was beautiful, and the set up went fast. Our vendor numbers were down on a Saturday that saw Texas Tech’s opening home football game and the 53^rd annual Garden and Arts Fall Festival. It was a double whammy for our Market. We expected it, but we carried on like any other Saturday. This is the life of the vendor and the event coordinator. Competition is always fierce! We had a slow but steady stream of shoppers, and I think those vendors that participated did okay! We had visitors here from Oregon supporting their football team and also visitors from Las Cruces, New Mexico checking things out.

We are still seeing local shoppers who are coming to the Market for the first time, and of course our regulars who wake up on Saturdays and head our way. The summer has been brutal for our produce vendors, but they are still able to provide a variety of farm fresh vegetables including peppers, onions, okra, black-eyed peas, assorted squash, tomatoes, and eggplant, just to mention a few. One of our most popular vendors, Colorado Peaches will have one more week with us before the peach season ends.

Our vendors also include salsas, and canned goods, bakers and local wine makers too. We are all hopeful that the forecasted dip in temperatures and upcoming rain will help all our farmers… we expect to see more produce as the fall harvest begins. We still have five more weekends left in this years Market season. We always have plenty of kids show up with their families, and Darcey Achin of Gnarled Roots provided an ear making class in our Kids Corner! The Market is a place where folks meet and commune and converse and this certainly gives us a community atmosphere. It takes all kinds of people to make up a community and we welcome and appreciate everybody!

We are a very dog friendly Market and we award one of our dog visitors the Tornado Industrial/Arts Dog of the Day. Tiny little Fifi gets the nod and carries away the title. Congratulations Fifi!

As we enter the Autumn season we are looking forward to the cooler weather and encourage everybody to come out and support our Market. We have something for everyone and our vendors are anxious to show their wares. We certainly appreciate all the support we have experienced this season. We will set up in the Charles Adams Studio Project courtyard next Saturday located at 5th and Ave J. and hope to see you there. We open at 9:00 am and close at 1:00 pm.

And yet another new vendor has come to us! This week we welcome LYNN Z BROWN HOMEMADE!  Lynn Z specializes in beef jerky, chicken jerky, and salsa. Her business started 10 years ago in Phoenix, where she made peach cobbler…lots of peach cobbler. When she and her husband Mitch came to Lubbock 2 years ago, she decided to try her hand at making jerky. This required a State manufacturing license and a separate structure, but now she is is in full operational mode with 3 commercial dehydrators. Lynn says it takes 1 ½ pounds of beef to make one ½ pound of jerky, and they sell out of 60 ½ pound bags every week. That’s a lot of beef! There are lots of flavors to choose from too, including dill pickle, pepperoni, & maple syrup. There are samples available, so you can decide which are your favorites. Come down & give it a try!

We would like to thank everyone who visited the market this Saturday and  we look forward to seeing you next week at the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market on the LHUCA Plaza from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM at 5^th Street & Avenue J.