BOTB Farmers Market celebrates farmers market week

Now in our third successful month at the Bounty of the Barrens Farmers Market in Glasgow, we have a lot to celebrate. But, the past two Saturday’s have been extra special as the market vendors, patrons and volunteers celebrated National and Kentucky Farmers Market Week. To commemorate Farmers Market week, volunteers at the BOTBMarket handed out hundreds of free, re-usable shopping totes to early morning shoppers on what turned out to be a remarkable day for the BOTBMarket with nearly 900 customers that we were able to track.

This enormous success is great for Sustainable Glasgow, the founding organization of the market, and really tells us that people of the community like what they are getting from the market. Consequently, the community is now supporting over forty regular vendors at the market who provide everything from local, home grown fruits and vegetables to grass-fed beef and pork, cut flowers, great local arts and crafts, and even bison. There really is something for everyone.

Still, there is a lot of room for improving the lot of the vendors. Right now they are in the “fat” part of the growing season and there is more “bounty” than there are buyers. We need more folks to come out and thank these folks who are working hard under the sun, and rain, to feed us. In addition, we all need to be asking the owners of local restaurants for more local food items to be included on their menus. The local farmers seem to always run into problems selling to local restaurants because the local products are not as cheap as the products sold to restaurants from commercial food services. It is up to us, the restaurant customers, to make the source of the food we buy an issue with the restaurant owners. Local food IS 1500 miles fresher!

So, even as farmers market week passes us by, there are so many great reasons to come to the BOTBMarket this Saturday. As always, we’ll have live, local music and a great local restaurant serving up delicious prepared dishes. Sustainable Glasgow will be passing out recipes for new ways to prepare the healthy, seasonal produce available right there at the market from hard-working, local farmers.

We plan on having the market through October to continue to provide an outlet for Fall items like pumpkins and gourds, herbs, flowers, and seasonal produce but also a place to buy arts and crafts and to continue the fellowship that seems to have evolved between regular Saturday customers and vendors. We can only hope that the BOTBMarket will become a part of the fabric of life in Glasgow now and in the future.