Tower Grove Farmers' Market

Fundraising Barbecue This Saturday!!!

Our second annual fundraising barbecue is this Saturday from 9am-12noon. Choose from grass-fed beef hamburgers, bratwurst (thanks Hinkebein Hills for supplying the meat!), and veggie burgers with two sides, potato salad and baked beans. Get a plate for $10, or just get a burger or brat for $5 or just the sides for $5.

This is a great way to support the market and you'll get a delicious meal in the bargain! All proceeds benefit the ongoing operation of the farmers' market.

Come & get 'em

The Market has a fresh crop of produce bags and tee shirts. The produce bags are 100% organic cotton. They come in a set: a full size bag, perfect for toting ears of corn, & half size, great for carrying peaches. And the tees, embellished with the Tower Grove Farmers' Market logo, come in all sizes from small to XX large. Pick them all up from the Farmers' Market booth.

We have just passed the halfway point of the 2008 Tower Grove Farmers' Market season and already it has been an incredibly successful year! Here are some highlights from the first half of the season:

We have added 7 new local food vendors, including farmers, ranchers, and food artisans. We are now averaging over 25 vendors per week. Our first season in 2006, we averaged 13 vendors per week.

We have sponsored and helped two new food businesses through the start-up process, Salume Beddu and Half Baked.

Weekly visitor averages have gone from 1,800/week to over 2500 .

The free yoga class is averaging almost 30 students per week , up from just over 10 per week in 2007.

The Harvest Sessions music series has provided outstanding music each week that complements the farmers’ market and enhances the shopping experience.

So far in 2008 we have also won two awards, Best Farmers’ Market from St Louis Magazine, and 2 nd second place in the farmers’ market category in the Sauce Magazine Readers’ Poll.

The market has been an incredible success in so many ways, and yet we are still having financial shortfalls. We have raised 58% of our fundraising goal so far in 2008 and we are grateful to everyone who has helped us get to that point. But we are still $6200 short of our goal: after June, donations pretty well stopped.

We understand that once the market is operating for the season and everything is in full swing, it is easy to take the market for granted. However, the market requires a lot of work throughout the season and generates a lot of bills. We need to meet our fundraising goal in order to maintain our weekly operations.

Roughly 5% of market shoppers have made donations to the farmers’ market so far in 2008. It only took 5% to get us over the half-way mark! That means we just need another 5% to contribute and we will have met our goal. Whether you can afford to give $5 or $100, we encourage you to consider a donation to the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market.

Market attendance, local food variety, and the incredible atmosphere have exceeded our expectations in so many ways, and we thank everyone for coming out and supporting the vendors and making it the great market it is. We hope you will consider a gift to the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market to help it continue as a wonderful Saturday destination.

We’ll look forward to seeing you at the market!

Patrick Horine & Jenny Ryan, market founder

Teaching lineup:

September 27 - Keith Mitchell
October 4 - Keith Mitchell
October 11 - Keith Mitchell

Here's who's scheduled for this week:

Companion Baking - bagels, pastries, breads, rolls
Centennial Farms - in-season produce, veggie and herb plants, flowers, preserves, honey
4 Seasons Baked Goods - from scratch baked goods, cookies, tarts, breads, biscotti, muffins, scones, granola
Three Rivers Community Farm - in-season produce, including many heirloom varieties
Prairie Grass Farms - naturally raised lamb, eggs, in-season produce, Lamb Gyros
Live Springs Farm - in-season produce
Hinkebein Hills Farm - naturally raised beef and pork
Kuva Coffe Company - locally roasted fair-trade and organic coffee
Oh! Crepes - sweet and savory crepes
Show Me Fresh Farm - hydroponic gourmet lettuce, specialty greens, cut herbs, home grown vegetables, gourmet doggie biscuits, specialty jams, jellies, and butters
Sunflower Savannah - cut flowers, in-season produce, herbs, potted plants, granola, jams, salsas
Our Garden - in-season produce, goat and cow cheeses, plants, jams, pickles, goat soaps and salves, goat meat
Kimker Hill Farm - in-season produce, including heirloom varieties, eggs, organic grains, flours and mixes, salsas, preserves, pickles, soaps
Biver Farms - in-season produce including heirloom varieties
City Seeds Urban Farm - in-season produce grown in mid-town
New Roots Urban Farm - in-season produce grown in north city
Greenwood Farms - all natural chicken, beef, pork, lamb, & raw-milk
Salume Beddu - artisan cured meats, sausage, gourmet selections
Double Star Farm - melons, in-season produce
Ringhausen Orchard - in-season tree fruit and produce
Ivan's Fig Farm - heirloom tomatoes, figs, seasonal produce
Kakao Chocoloate - gourmet chocolates
Spirited Hands Art - handmade & altered adul & children clothing, yoga mat bags, textiles
Fireworks - handmade pottery