The market season continues to race along. I
can hardly keep up. This Thursday we’ll still have plenty of flowers, both in
baskets and handcrafted planters. Just Jake and Corky will be on the market
stage. FitFoods and will serve “Build Your Own Burrito Bowl” – grilled chicken
or shrimp, cilantro lime rice, salsa, guacamole, lettuce, cheese, corn and
black bean salsa, plus lemonade for $7.
You’ll
notice another event happening in the kids’ tent Thursday. Sorry, it’s just for
our city friends – city staff, employees, officials, and volunteers. We’ll hold
our annual Thank You Lunch Thursday and we’re hoping for a big turnout – maybe even
fire trucks and police cars! This is our way of recognizing all the help we
receive from the city in so many ways.
Yea! Fire trucks, police cars, public works, even a street sweeper! |
When I go to state market meetings and tell
them about the many ways our city supports the market, other managers are
amazed. Often they are doing battle with their own city and here we are singing our city’s praises, and rightly so. There probably isn’t a department that
hasn’t pitched in to make the market better. In fact, yesterday there was a
team of park workers putting up our kids tent. We loan them our tent for the
Easter Egg Hunt. They store it and put it up and take it down for us. Everybody
wins! (And speaking of winning, notice in the photo the permanent fence around the kids play area north of their tent. The parks department had some surplus fencing and put it up for us. It looks great and will make the area so much safer for the kids. Yep, we've got a pretty fine city.)
On Saturday Beyond the Edge makes its debut at
the market. This eclectic folk group has played at the market before in other
configurations and with other names, one of which brought The Market Song to
life. This is a song that is featured on our web site and is about our very own
market. Listen for it Saturday. It’s lots of fun.
The Kids’ Garden Club is “What’s All the Buzz
About?” Kids will plant nasturtium whose
bright blooms attract bees. There will be a bee craft and a bee anatomy
coloring sheet. Helm Family Farm will have an observation hive on display and
kids (and adults) can try on the gear that a beekeeper wears when working with
bees. The Kids’ Garden Club is free and runs from 9 to noon.
Cooking for a Cause on Saturday benefits the
Webb City High School Band Boosters.
On Tuesday, we have our first Eat Street at
the Market. This new food truck event will run from 4 to 8:30 on the third
Tuesday of the month. Parking will be a bit different because the food trucks
will set up between the market pavilion and the market kitchen so there will be
no drive through beside the market. Most folks will want to go south on Hall
Street and access the market from Garrison Street where there will be plenty of
parking. Handicapped parking will still be located north of the pavilion.
We’re starting small with just a few top quality
eateries, live music, and a chalk drawing area for kids. As we learn more
about food truck events, we hope to build this into a major monthly event.
Our
first Eat Street will feature Ghetto Taco with street tacos, Songbird Kitchens
with Asian delights, Culver Creek Eatery with BBQ, Jim’s PB&J with gourmet
sandwiches, and Apple Road Farms with sweets.
Yoga at the Market starts at 5:45 every
Tuesday.
To race ahead a whole week – next Thursday is
our first Free Kids Meal - chicken salad with crackers and market veggies. From
the 23rd of May through mid-August, we’ll have a tasty meal for kids
aged 1 through 18 at every market.
With school letting out, those of you
associated with the schools may be looking for some meaningful volunteer work.
Stop by the information table during market. Whether it’s a once a month
helping with a kids activity or once a week driving the market cart or any
number of other volunteer opportunities, we would welcome your help during this
our busiest time when we’re full of produce, people, food, music, and fun.