Thursday, May 16, 2019

Webb City Sentinel market column - 5-15-109


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.

One reason we are blocking the road beside the market for Eat Street is that there is discussion of expanding the pavilion by building an arm west to the kitchen. We thought it wise to see what that would do to traffic and parking so we can anticipate any challenges before something permanent is set in concrete. Eat Street offers us the chance to see the future and adjust for success.

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.