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Farmers markets offer homegrown and homemade products ranging from produce to crafts.
Farmers markets offer homegrown and homemade products ranging from produce to crafts.

After 5: Farmers market vendors cultivate local economy

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Once a week, Lee Ann Walker ends her day by wandering over to the Ozark Square Farmers Market.

"It's great on Thursdays to slip on some comfortable clothing and take a chair over," says Walker, a family and estate-planning attorney whose office is near the market that takes place 5-8 p.m. Thursdays April-October.

It's that time of year. Area farmers markets are opening, including two new entrants: Park Central Square and Wilson's Creek farmers markets.

Ozark's market is in its third year and coincides with bluegrass music performed each week. Vendors must grow or make their products and live in Christian County or a contiguous county. Everything from food to crafts is available.

Buyers enjoy interacting with the people who make the products, especially as more consumers think about buying locally, says Robert Snook, executive director of Ozark Main Street Program.

"Organic and green techniques are obviously things that have been in the news for some time," he says. "Buyers are sometimes surprised by what organic produce looks like."

Growing the economy

Battlefield is starting Wilson's Creek farmers market to promote the city and encourage local economic activity, says Paula Carter, Battlefield Chamber of Commerce member.

"The stimulus starts at home. You have to grow your own community (and) grassroots effort," she says. "That's what I believe in."

The Wilson's Creek Farmers Market opens May 1 and will meet 5:30-8 p.m. Fridays through Oct. 30 at Battlefield City Park. Community events will be held at the same time, with topics ranging from child safety-seat testing, composting and lasagna gardening (the layering of organic materials, sometimes without soil) to environmentally sound farming, creating a rain garden and low-cost lawn care.

"Our goal is to have five vendors by opening, but there's obviously more who will come on board as those crops begin to produce," Carter says. "The nice part about our market is you can talk to the grower."

The market received seed money from the Battlefield Parks Department, she notes, and will be supplemented by a specialty crops grant from the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Vicki Hutcheson is thrilled to have a new market close to her home near Battlefield.

"I think it's a really neat opportunity," says Hutcheson, secretary for Battlefield's chamber and a real-estate agent with Carol Jones, Realtors. "Battlefield is the opposite of 'build it, and they will come.' The people are already here. The services are not. ... I see opportunities in this current economy to do things locally."

Springfield square

Springfield is joining the action with a new market launching June 5 on Park Central Square in conjunction with the Sounds on the Square concert series. The market will run 3:30-8 p.m. Fridays to catch employees leaving work and evening patrons arriving downtown to play, says Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance.

The idea to create a downtown farmers market percolated for a while, but it was jumpstarted after a group from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce visited Madison, Wis., last summer, Worley says.

"We hope to have a wide variety (of vendors)," he adds. "We'll have produce. We'll have meat. We'll have a bakery. We'll have flowers."

Returning to the scene are C-Street Market on Commercial Street and Greater Springfield Farmers Market at Battlefield Mall.

C-Street Market opened April 25 and runs 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays and 4-7 p.m. Tuesdays through October. "Produce has to be homegrown, preferably organic," says organizer Mary Collette. "We prefer homegrown and homemade."

Look for everything from free-range chicken and pork to a knife sharpener who sells his wares while sharpening customers' dull scissors. There also will be a combination C-Street Market-Thousand Gardens Project booth where people can buy and barter, Collette notes.

The Greater Springfield Farmers Market launches the Saturday closest to April 15, so it's already open and continues through Oct. 31, says Henry Beersman, the market's administrative assistant.

"This is our 15th year in the mall market. This is our 32nd year in Springfield," he says.

The market runs 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It sets up north of Firestone Complete Auto Care during the week and north of Macy's on Saturdays.[[In-content Ad]]This story was corrected on May 26, 2009. It originally stated that lasagna gardening is growing vegetables and herbs specifically for lasagna dishes.

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