Hometown & Homegrown – Dream Farmers Market – Madison
July 7th, 2016
Is this a dream? A farmers market where 20,000 show up every Saturday morning. Where the goods are only locally grown and produced. No, it’s my hometown Madison, Wisconsin farmers market.
I was in Madison for a family reunion recently. I love the Farmers Market there. It stirs my heart to be where I was born and raised. I love farms and farmers. I spent many summers and weekends at my Grandparent’s dairy farm an hour’s drive away from our city home.
Whenever I go, the Saturday downtown Farmer’s Market is a must. It’s held around the state capitol building with eight blocks of sidewalk around the building, creating the Capitol Square.
It’s celebration of food, farms, art and music. People walk side-by-side counter clockwise around the eight blocks, where over 160 vendors sell everything from cheese curds to emu meat and lots of things in between.
The shaded tree lined square is beautiful on sunny summer days, with the white capitol building in the center. But the best part is the food.
Fresh Strawberries, the kind that are red through and through.
Maple Syrup like the kind I helped make as a kid at my Grandparent’s Farm.
Of course flowers. Lovely Lilies
Blue Larkspur, Coreopsis and Feverfew
The flowers are arranged by an Elder Hmong woman. She’s wearing a traditional headpiece with a plume in front. Many of the market stalls are run by Hmong growers, who settled here after the Vietnam war.
Radish Mountain
I bought a goji berry bush from these women plant sellers
The gourd guy posed for me.
Of course cheese. You couldn’t get near this cheese tent, but there were lots of other cheese sellers.
Also Emu meat. I passed on this.
This farmer in the blue shirt looked and talked just like my Uncle who still lives on the farm where he, my mother and their siblings were born. Many of the farmers here are second and third generation farmers.
More flowers. The painting on the truck for the Flower Factory.
My St. Louis friends Kelly and Barry (who lived in Wisconsin) Larson were in Madison the week after I was there. They took great videos of the musicians above and below, but I couldn’t convert the videos to work on this blog. Darn.
If you are ever in Madison (only six hour drive from St. Louis) don’t miss the largest farmers market in the country with only locally grown and produced food allowed. It’s a delicious and fun treat.
Enjoy & Create