Closing Day, October 15th

Closing Day festivities will include free hayrides, pumpkin decorating, samples of homemade applesauce and sweet potato pancakes, and live music by Barefoot Jones.
We will also be accepting contestants in our two closing day contests:

• Best Pumpkin Pie Contest
• Best Costume Contest

See you Saturday.

Only Two Markets Left

Don't miss your chance to visit the North City Farmers' Market this season. We are open October 8th and October 15th from 9 am to noon.

This week, October 8th, is Open Streets. Bicyclists and pedestrians can enjoy miles of traffic-free streets and fun activities. The North City Farmers' Market will be at the heart of Open Streets this week with music, gardening classes, sewing classes, and tons of other activities.

Produce available this week will include okra, collards, herbs, squash, lettuce, and corn.

Ragged Blade Band plays September 17th

The Ragged Blade Band will perform this Saturday at the market. Come hear them play blues, jazz, country, show tunes, ballads, rock, and more!

The Columbia Peace and Hope Garden will make their debut this season. Help us welcome a new vendor to the market.

Our artisans will also be out in full force offering plenty of local creations to take home.

Market is On Rain or Shine

We plan on having the farmers market tomorrow, September 10th, rain or shine. If it rains, look for us in the gallery of the Old North Restoration Group at 2700 14th Street. All your favorite vendors will be there, and we'll have some fall veggies, including acorn, butternut, and yellow squash.

The Skekses play the market, September 3rd

This Saturday, The Skekses play live at the market 9ish to noon.

Join us for a salsa cooking demonstration and try a sample.

Made in Old North and Ahjiba Handspun with join our regular local artisans, Joyce Cooks and Stuff N Things, this week.

The Market is Open!

The market is still open despite the rain. We've moved inside to the gallery of the Old North Restoration Group. Come get your veggies, eggs, and meat from us!

NCFM featured in Lincoln University Newsletter

The North City Farmers' Market is featured in the current issue of Lincoln University's Innovative Small Farmers Outreach Program (ISFOP) Newsletter.

Read the article here, or download the entire July 2011 newsletter from their site.

St Louis’ North City Farmers’ Market By Miranda Duschack

It’s a picture perfect Saturday morning in St Louis—blue sky, sunny and warm—an ideal day to explore the North City Farmers’ Market located just one mile from downtown in the Old North St Louis neighborhood. Every Saturday from early June to mid-October the refurbished Crown Plaza at 14th Street and St. Louis Avenue (across from the famous Crown Candy Kitchen) is transformed. Children chatter while strolling adults shop the vendor’s stalls. A small crowd gathers to watch Chef Ivy lead a cooking demonstration with local eggs and fresh herbs. Neighbors greet each other. The market hours are from 9 am until noon on Saturdays. “We work hard to create a positive community space,” said North City Farmers’ Market Master Cassandra Howard. She is optimistic about the market’s fifth sea- son. “This is still a small market, but it is growing. This year we have 14 vendors, up from 10 in 2010. Most of our vendors, such as the 13th Street Community Garden, New Roots Urban Farm and W.M. Farm sell produce but we also have two meat vendors (Whetstone Farms and Villarreal Family Farm) and two bakeries, Black Bear and Angel Baked Cookies. And also this year we have brewed coffee for sale at La Mancha Café.”

This market provides a good venue for backyard and community gardeners to sell their produce. The average weekly attendance of 150 people wouldn’t support many full-time farmers, but to attract them the market has devised a clever system. Shelley Meyer of Whetstone Farm delivers her frozen meat to the Old North Grocery Cooperative earlier in the week. Community volunteers staff her Saturday mar- ket booth. Meyer then returns to collect the unsold product and money. This is a creative solution for a smaller market to provide the variety of products the customers want.

This farmers’ market is a sign of renewal for Old North St. Louis. Like many urban areas, Old North experienced significant depopulation throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Business and grocery stores closed making healthy, affordable food difficult to find. The entire neighborhood suffered.

But Old North St. Louis is on the upswing. In recent years, residents have joined forces with the Old North Restoration Group, a non- profit organization, to improve the situation. The results are dra- matic. During the past five years they have established a farmers’ market, a food cooperative and a community garden. All three work in unison to provide fresh, healthy food to the neighborhood resi- dents. The market provides a limited number of free ‘vouchers-as- cash’ to the clients of a local food pantry. In addition, Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), debit cards and cash are all accepted. For more information about the market and special event Vegetapalooza on Saturday, August 6, 2011, visit their web site at http://northcityfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/.

Burning Kumquats Take the Crown at Vegetapalooza

Vegetapalooza was a blast! The Burning Kumquat Farm of Wash U. won the chef competition against the Old North Grocery Co-op, but not by much. It was a hard vote to cast.

Thanks to Left Bank Books and Angel Baked Cookies for donating prizes awarded to the 1st place winners of our three contests.

Courtney McDermott's Raspberry Pie took 1st place in our best pie contest.

More Vegetapalooza pictures here.

VEGETAPALOOZA this weekend, August 6th

Vegetapalooza is this weekend, and it's going to be a blast.

Please bring your best pie, your weirdest vegetable, and your largest vegetable to enter them into our three contests open to the public. 1st Place Prizes will be awarded!

Help decide the winner of the chef cook-off between the Old North Grocery Co-op and the Burning Kumquat Farm. Stick around to have a free food sample and vote for your favorite dish.

Wack-a-do will perform live music.

Other activities include:

• ice-cream making and tasting
  
• folk dance lessons
• a visit and talk from the Truck Farm
• live chickens from the 13th Street Garden

Check out our video about Vegetapalooza:

Watermelon and Cantaloupe at the North City Farmers Market!

Usually I try to blog before the market happens, but I have to tell you what you missed if you didn't make it out to the North City Farmers' Market today.

Lee Farms sold ready-to-eat cantaloupe, and Chef Ivy featured it in the salsa she made on site for everyone to sample. Delicious. W. M. Farms featured watermelons the size of a piglet, and the Old North Grocery Co-op brought local peaches.

Our produce vendors featured your summer favorites - tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and more.

Don't forget that next week, August 6th, is Vegetapalooza, when we celebrate local produce, good food, and community.

Save the Date - August 27th

NCFM is having a Camp-out Fundraiser on August 27. Bring your camping gear and spend the night with us under the stars in the 13th Street Garden in Old North.

The details are in the works, but expect live music, smores, and more.

July 16th at the North City Farmers' Market

Tonight, Chef Ivy and I went to Grace Hill's Whitaker Urban Evening Concert Series and passed out Angel Baked Cookies and fliers while listening to Charles Glenn and his Gospel Group. I especially enjoyed admiring the face-painted children walking the grounds.

We had fun telling people all about the Farmers' Market, and why they should visit us. Why visit?

• This Saturday, July 16, 13th Street Garden will have onions and garlic for sale, as well as green beans, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and other good stuff.
  
• Chef Ivy will show you how to make veggie quesadillas and chilled veggie soup. Free food samples!
• Live music by Melissa.

Live Music on July 2, 2011

Greg Silsby (of Cumberland Gap) will be playing at the market on July 2. Come and enjoy the music.


Also, Chef Ivy will show you how to make everything you need for your 4th of July vegetarian barbecue, and Made in Old North and Ahjiba Handspun will join our regular artisans.


The market starts at 9 am. Don't forget we accept debit and EBT cards.

VEGETAPALOOZA is August 6th!

Yep, only 7 weeks away, which may seem like a lot of time, but not when you consider all you have to do to get ready, including ...

• scope out your garden for the winning entry
  to the biggest and weirdest produce contests
• limber up for folk dancing lessons
• test out your favorite recipes for the best pie contest

Come ready to enjoy

• music by Wack-a-do
• a chef competition
• produce and meat, baked goods, and crafts - ALL LOCAL!

See you there.

Not to rain on your parade, but ...

WE ARE OFFICIALLY CANCELING THE MARKET FOR JUNE 18, 2011, DUE TO THE STORMS.

We look forward to seeing you next Saturday.

Come visit us this weekend, June 18, 2011

This weekend Chef Ivy will be at the market cooking with produce from some of our very own NCFM vendors. Please come and listen as she explains how to make what she's cooking and why it's so good for you.

Afterward, visit one of our vendors, like New Roots or Lee Farms, to take home what you need to make the recipe yourself.

See you on Saturday.

OPENING DAY, June 4, 9 am - noon

Opening day is this Saturday. We're busy getting all our ducks in a row, and we want to see you there to enjoy it.

Fresh local produce, meat, and baked goods will be available from our vendors. For a list of our vendors this year, click here. And don't forget, WE ACCEPT EBT, DEBIT, and cash, of course.

A few special things of note for this week only:

• Grace Hill will be providing free health screenings.
• Made in Old North, Ahjiba Handspun, and other artisans will be selling handmade crafts, including jewelry, decorative gourds, scarves, and more.
  
• Ragged Blade Band will be performing live music.

Come out this Saturday to buy fresh, local, healthy food and have some fun with us.

We raised over $1000 ...

... at the NCFM Trivia Night Fundraiser! Thank you to all who participated. Special thanks goes to the individuals, businesses, and organizations who donated prizes to the live and silent auctions as well as to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

This includes Sarah Kate Buckles, Norah Ryan, Gail Havens, Heidi Sever, Chef Ivy, Sun Ministries, Kakao Chocolate, Crown Candy Kitchen, Old North Grocery Co-op, La Mancha Coffeehouse, Pin-Up Bowl, Pi Pizzeria, D-Zine Hair and Art Studio, Headhunters Unisex Barber Salon, The Royale, and Chauvin Coffee.

A huge thanks and bravo to our emcee, Michael, who put the questions together and wowed us with his multimedia amazingness.

Thanks also to Old North Restoration Group for letting us use their space and to Schlafly Beer for their donation of brew.

Trivia Night is Coming



Vendor/Volunteer Meeting

We can't wait for the Vendor/Volunteer Meeting coming up this weekend, because it means that opening day is so close! June 4th!

On the menu for our market friends: Creamy Irish Potato Soup with Bacon, Mexican Black Bean Sausage Chili, French Onion Soup, and Curried Coconut Soup with Lemongrass. Yesterday, I got local shiitake mushrooms from Ozark Forest Mushrooms for the curried coconut soup. I can't wait to try the recipe, which I got from Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Let us know if you want to sell or volunteer at the market. We need your help to make the market great.

SLOUP Results Are In

Last night, a small crowd gathered at Black Bear Bakery to vote between proposed projects of the North City Farmers' Market and Floating Laboratories.

Congratulations goes to Floating Laboratories, who won $220 to get the "Float Your Face Music Festival" off the ground. Visit SLOUP's blog to read more about FL's music festival, which is scheduled for May.

Thank you to everybody who showed up to support the market!

We have another fundraiser coming up in May, a TRIVIA NIGHT at the Old North Restoration Group. More details to come.

We still need to raise the money needed to close the street on market days and to pay musicians and other performers to liven up the market with their talents. Let us know how you can help!

The North City Farmers' Market will be featured at this month's SLOUP, on Easter Sunday. Please come and support the Market!

SLOUP is a unique fundraiser for arts/charity initiatives. You pay $10 for an evening of soup & salad, and groups give a presentation about their particular charity. Then you get to vote on who receives all the funds from that evening's entrance fees!

http://sloup2122.blogspot.com/

We hope to use the money generated from this fundraiser to pay for permits to hold the Farmers' Market on the street each week and to pay musicians.

Welcome to the new website!

Opening day is June 4, and we can't wait to see you there.  

Check back here for news about pre-market events.  Better yet, sign up to receive our emails here, and we'll let you know what's new and happening.

We are currently looking for new vendors, volunteers, and entertainers.  

• Email Cassandra, Market Master, if you'd like to sell at the market.
• Email Jennifer, Market Assistant, if you'd like to volunteer.
• Email Ivy, co-Project Coordinator, if you'd like to sing, dance, or entertain in any way.