There may not be a midsummer celebration this year, but by and large Emporia Farmers Market Coordinator Jessica Hopkins is very pleased with how the 2020 market campaign has fared to this point.
Hopkins confirmed on KVOE’s Talk of Emporia on Friday there would be no Homegrown Celebration later this month, meaning yet another community event lost due to coronavirus.
There will be a Watermelon Wednesday at the July 22 market with free watermelon slices and watermelon activities.
And Hopkins says market traffic has been strong at all the sites — Emporia; Americus and Olpe, which came on board last year; and Allen, which started this year. Hopkins credited the partnership with Healthier Lyon County that let the market expand beyond Emporia’s city limits.
COVID-19’s presence in the community has been noticed at the market with several hand sanitizer stations and an increased emphasis on social distancing and use of face masks.
Hopkins says conversations about COVID-19 safety will continue this summer.
Hopkins also said she was pleased with how well the CSA box program went at the end of the winter market and start of the regular market season — again due to coronavirus. The CSA program, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture, let residents buy bags of available food from market vendors. Hopkins says the program supported over 20 local vendors and is under consideration to bring back at some time down the road.
Emporia has its Wednesday evening markets from 5-6:30 pm through September and Saturday morning markets from 8:30-10:30 am through October. Both are at the Farmers Market Parking Lot at Seventh and Merchant. For the Lyon County markets, Olpe’s market is from 5-6:30 pm Mondays across Kansas Highway 99 from Murphy Oil. The Allen market is from 5-6:30 pm at Allen Meat Processing, 323 South Main. The Americus market is from 5-6:30 pm Fridays at Americus City Park.
More information is available at www.emporiafarmersmarket.org or on the Farmers Market’s Facebook page.
