June 8th 2024 Farmers Market

The storms on Friday night made the Saturday morning set up cool, calm, and cloudy, with threatening dark clouds visible in the northern sky. Of course this type of morning is always invigorating. The set up went well with the usual greetings and helpful hands. There is always laughter and chatter as background music while our vendors prepare for the Market. We had fewer vendors than opening day as some opted for other markets including The West Texas Comic Con, which took vendors and shoppers from all the area markets…it was obvious by the number of cars that filled the Civic Center parking lot.

However, our shoppers slowly arrived and they continued to enter the LUHCA Plaza in a steady stream. We would like to say thanks to our vendors who are consistently loyal and our regular shoppers who spend their summer Saturday mornings supporting the Downtown Market. We are beginning to see a few out of town visitors stopping in. I spoke with a couple from Hobbs, New Mexico and another from Seagraves. We hope that locals will encourage summer visitors to stop by and check out our Market. As the morning continued, the dark clouds to the north moved on. The sun broke through and made the day very sunny and warm. We are happy to have lots of early spring produce with root vegetables like beets, onions, carrots, and garlic. Also we have vendors with leafy greens like Swiss chard, bok choy, and lettuce. With our recent rains we hope to see more variety in the produce section soon.

We had an international flare with the food trucks offerring Filipino and Mexican cuisine. Our bakers were out in full force with all types of pastries breads, and cookies. Part of the fun on a Saturday morning is a good pastry to eat as you stroll the plaza and check out our wide variety of jellies, jams, salsas and more. Our artists and craftspeople are eager to show off their work and give insight to the small businesses they have created. We feel that a visit to our Market is a great thing for families to do!

Encourage a friend to meet up between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm in the Plaza at Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, located at 5th and Ave. J.

And bring your dogs! We love having our canine friends visit. They add so much to the Market. So much so that we honor one dog each week as the Tornado Industrial/ Arts Dog of The Day….oops make that a double dip this week with Coupe and Nova pairing up to share the award. Two very deserving canines. We hope to see you next Saturday!

Our highlighted new vendor this week is REVIVAL MILL. Located here in Lubbock, Ethan Triplette and his wife Braleigh are creating stone ground flour blends for you to take home and experiment with. These flours are made with varying combinations of hard white winter wheat, soft red wheat, sorghum, and white corn, and are sourced solely from the Texas Panhandle. They have created pizza dough flour, frying flour (seasoned and unseasoned), and flavored flours like strawberry and lavender. They also have standard wheat flour, and a sourdough choice. You add your own yeast and water. So if you like to bake bread or make pizza, pick up some regionally grown and locally milled grains, and enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the June 1st market and we hope to see you next Saturday at the LDFM on the LHUCA Plaza from 9:00AM until 1:00PM at 5th Street & Avenue J!