This weekend is the third anniversary of the Waco Downtown Farmers Market. As KWBU’s Jill Ament reports, the market has grown over the years and now attracts vendors from all over Central Texas.
As you walk around the Waco farmers market – you’re likely to see tons of vendors selling fresh produce and a variety of other items: Brick oven pizza, fresh pressed coffee, cheeses and soaps to name a few.
Market manager Camille Cody says when they started just a few years ago – there were only about 10 vendors. Now – close to 40 local farmers and merchants make their way to the vacant lot downtown by the Brazos River to be a part of an exchange Cody says boosts the local economy.
“So being able to support people who are locally making their livelihoods off of what is coming out of the ground here in Waco is a really important thing we want to support,” Cody said.
But not all the vendors are based in Waco. Evan Strange works with Oh Kimchi based out of Austin. If you didn’t figure out by the name –they sell homemade Kimchi products. Strange says they make the drive to the market because business is pretty good here. Of the 10 markets they’re at across the state – Strange says Waco is one of their busiest.
“We have a lot of people that come and ask for products like ours that they don’t see in the Waco area," Strange said. "And because we get to come up here, we can be that connection to those types of products.”
And since the city’s Riverfront Development project has recently been put on the back burner – Cody says for the time being the market doesn’t have to worry about relocating from their beloved live oak grove along the river.
“I mean as far as another location, we haven’t looked into that extensively," Cody said. "We have a few ideas that we could work with the city on but basically no places quite as good as we have now.”
The Farmers Market will be celebrating their three-year anniversary this weekend at their location at 400 South University Parks Drive. Activities include vendor specials and door prizes, a hula hoop contest and a petting zoo.
