Farmers’ Market Launch Today
Well, the big day is finally here. The Emerson Garfield Farmers’ Market launches today (Friday, July 19) at 3pm and will run until 7pm in the parking lot Knox Presbyterian Church (806 W. Knox) [map].
The buzz so far seems to be great. Yesterday we got a wonderful writeup in The Inlander‘s food newsletter, Entree, and this website saw some of its highest traffic ever. In the past 24 hours alone, we’ve added LyLo’s Teriyaki food truck and Orange Thyme to our full-season vendors.
Here are some highlights and important info:
- We have approximately 16 vendors and food trucks taking part today, with the possibility of some last-minute additions. Even more are scheduled for next week (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).
- Today’s event isn’t just a one-off. It’s a weekly market that runs until October 18, and if it’s a success, it will continue next year too.
- Remember that this is not the location that we announced back in May. It’s in the parking lot of Knox Presbyterian at the corner of Knox and Post. Look for the sandwich boards (pictured) when you’re heading north on Monroe, west on Indiana and south on Post.
- The Party Palace on Division was fantastic enough to donate some balloons to decorate our sandwich boards. R&R Custom Color Lab on N. Monroe was kind enough to cut us a nice break on flyer printing, which was largely out-of-pocket.
- Bri Musser designed our logo as well as our soon-to-be-printed tokens. If the market has slick branding, she’s the one to credit. Those tokens are being sponsored by Prime Lending and the interesting new episodic TV show Washington Grown, and we’re incredibly grateful for their generosity and support. Megan Kennedy and Melissa Parker were the dynamic duo that recruited those sponsors.
- The Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market is a “sister” market of the West Central Marketplace. We got this off the ground in just 60 days because we were able to pool resources with Project HOPE, who have been instrumental in sorting out a lot of the back-end paperwork. That also means market tokens from one market will be valid at the other — which opens up your market shopping opportunities.
- Knox Presbyterian has been a dream venue for a lot of reasons — not least their eagerness to make sure we had all the amenities a market would need. If you bump into one of their volunteers, thank them profusely.
- Despite all our publicity, there are plenty of people who still won’t know about this new weekly event. Mention it to your friends, family and co-workers — tell ’em that there’s a convenient place to go on Friday afternoon/evening for some excellent fast food as well as some fresh, affordable weekend shopping. Spokane’s north side needs a little love.
And we’ll conclude there for now. See you at the market!