June 29th 2024 Farmers Market

Market Review June 22, 2024

By Paul Bullock & Mary Gates

Wow! What a crazy day! I arrived at LHUCA and found street barricades set up for the Pride Event. Our Market moved from our usual spot in the LHUCA Plaza to the Charles Adams Studio Project to accommodate Pride. I quickly realized the area was going to resemble a busy ant bed with hundreds of people descending on the LHUCA and Charles Adams Studio Project areas all at once.

Our Market vendors were ready for the change in venue. The set up went well with more than 40 vendors setting up on the newly concreted area just north of LHUCA’s main building. We had some worries that our new spot might be difficult for our shoppers to find, but with the opening bell at 9:00 am shoppers began to arrive. They came in a steady stream traversing through the blockaded areas. People were everywhere! Cars and trucks were packed in trying to find parking, or unloading their vendors gear for Pride. What could have been a disaster turned out to be a great morning and afternoon for everybody. T

he Market got very busy in the morning and the over flow of people from the Pride event benefited our Market in a big way, with our vendors doing well as the two events merged and shared shoppers. Some of our vendors decided to stay an extra hour, and that paid off for them.

I must mention that our involvement with the SNAP program is doing great. Snap eligible families can double their purchasing power at our Market, and we saw a huge jump in the number of people utilizing the program. Eligible families receive a dollar for dollar match for up to $30.00 on fruits and vegetables at our Saturday morning Market. We encourage SNAP recipients to come out and take advantage of this great deal.

Our farmers are bringing in more and more produce to choose from, including onions, all types of squash, tomatoes, cherries, apricots and so much more. Need a gift for an upcoming birthday, wedding, anniversary or most any occasion? Our vendors offer all types of arts and crafts, many of them homemade and unique!

We had plenty of dogs join in, and we are happy to award our weekly honor of Tornado Industrial/Arts Dog of the Day to Finn. Way to go Finn! We hope you will come back soon. We want to say a special thanks to Charles Adams and Chad Plunket for always being so helpful and generous when we need an alternate space for our Market! Please spread the word that the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market is open for business each and every Saturday from 9:00 to 1:00 in the LHUCA Plaza. Stop by and see what we offer!

Featured Vendor: JESS’S LITTLE COTTAGE BAKERY

We continue to introduce you to a new vendor each week, and we would like to say welcome to Jessica Ellis with JESS’S LITTLE COTTAGE BAKERY. Jessica is a one woman show, making her tasty breads, cookies  and scones at home. She specializes in sourdough, making her own starter when she moved here from Kentucky in January. Her bread flavors include Plain, Rosemary, and Everything Sea Salt. Jessica also makes cookies ( chocolate chip & brownie) and scones (strawberry lemon, Mo’s Pina Colada). There’s also Banana Nut & Banana Bread, with rotating goodies from week to week. When asked why she started baking the bread, she said that she wanted to provide a simple, wholesome bread without any unneccessary ingredients…her plain sourdough only has 4 ingredients! That’s all one needs for good bread! Come give this young lady a big Texas welcome, and your support.

Thank you for visiting the June 22^nd Market. We hope to see you next Saturday at the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market at the LHUCA Plaza!