Farmers Market Time!
by: Tom Buller
County Extension Agent, Horticulture
In Douglas County, the number of ways to access local produce is growing. In addition to local grocery stores and restaurants that have carried local farm products for years, many farms added online ordering to their availability last year to help deal with COVID-19. While all those options still exist, my favorite place to find local produce is still at farmers’ markets. This is the perfect time of year to shop at farmers'’ markets as many of the summer favorites are available- tomatoes, potatoes, sweet corn, to go along with the year-round supply of meats, eggs, and baked goods. Douglas County has many options for farmers markets. One easy reference is to visit the Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley page on the Unmistakably Lawrence website that lists some of the options.
Here is the list from that site:
Tuesday, Lawrence Farmers Market
4:00 – 6:30 PM, May through October | South Park
Wednesday, The Farmers Market at Clinton Parkway Nursery
4:30 – 6:30 PM, First Wednesday after Mother’s Day through September | 4900 Clinton Parkway, Lawrence
Thursday, Cottin’s Hardware Farmers Market *Year round
4:00 – 6:30 PM, Year round – the market moves inside October through April | 1837 Massachusetts St., Lawrence
(parking lot off Rhode Island St.)
Friday, Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market
4:00 – 6:30 PM, June through October | Bernie’s/Cenex parking lot, 2115 Ferguson Rd. (Hwy 24 & Ferguson Rd.) Perry
Saturday, Lawrence Farmers Market
7:00 AM – 11:00 AM April through August, 8:00 AM – noon, September through November | Public parking lot at 824 New Hampshire.
Other markets have sprung up around the county, there is now a market in North Lawrence on Sundays from 9am -12pm at 923 N. 2nd Street, there is a market in Downtown Baldwin on Saturday mornings and a new market is under development in Eudora.
Here at Extension, we work with many market vendors, from helping them to grow more fruits and vegetables to make sure they have the information they need to safely process foods, but this year we have a special venture we are working on called Triple Up Days. We have received grant funding from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Pathways to a Healthy Kansas program to boost access to locally grown fruits and vegetables. On select market days, July and August, we are partnering with the Lawrence Farmers Market and Cottin’s Farmers Market to offer a triple match on the first $25 of SNAP benefits used at the markets. After users get $25 in tokens from their SNAP benefits, they will be matched $25 from the Double Up Food Bucks Program and an additional $25 in green tokens from our special Triple Up fund. The Double Up and Triple Match are available to purchase fruits and vegetables. The specific dates for these Triple Up Days are: on July 13th and August 17th we will be tripling SNAP benefits at the Tuesday Lawrence Farmers Market in South Park, on Thursday, July 15 and, August 12 we will be tripling SNAP benefits at the Cottin’s Farmers Market, and; on Saturday, July 17th and August 14 we will be tripling SNAP benefits at the Lawrence Farmers Market in downtown. On all market days at Cottin’s and the Lawrence Farmers Market, customers can double their SNAP purchases up to $25 per market. Spread the word and buy more local produce!
