Gardendale Alabama Farmers Market

We’ll be open today with fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, baked
goods, and homemade soaps, chap stick and other personal items. Our 11
year old entrepreneur Shelby Evens, Kid Bakes, will be selling her
delicious cupcakes. We’ll have Two Fat Men Catering selling their
delicious Italian food. For the children, the inflatable will be up
and storytelling will take place at 11:30 AM. America’s First
Federal Credit Union will have their mobile ATM unit with us. Please
come out and support our growers and vendors.

We want to thank those of you that have been our steady customers,
and we’re still looking for new ones. We’ve only had one vendor
selling jams and jellies, and she has been building commercial
accounts which has been taking more of her time; as a result, she’ll
no longer be selling her products at this market. We’re in the
process of trying to find another vendor to sell jams and jellies.
We’ll have our mobile caterers, Thom and Lou Ann Duran, Two Fat Men
Catering selling their delicious steaks and Italian plates. The
America’s First Federal Credit Union will have their mobile ATM unit
at the market. We’ll have representatives from the Gardendale Quilt
Guild selling raffle tickets for one each Auburn and UAB quilt. Our
young entrepreneur’s, Savannah and Sofia Holliman, will be selling
their 100% fruit popsicles. There’ll be corn, okra, tomatoes, peaches,
cantaloupes, watermelons, string beans, potatoes, squash, honey, chow
chow, and home made soaps, lotions, balms, etc.
In a recent conversation with City Councilman Adam Berendt, he asked
me why we don’t have the market on Saturdays. I wasn’t part of the
original group that set up the market who decided to have the event on
Thursdays. This question has been brought up at our annual meeting in
the past, and the answer is basically that all our produce growers,
and most of the vendors, have other obligations at different markets
already.
As we’ve asked in the future, please consider doing business with
our three sponsors; America’s First Federal Credit Union; Scott
Cantrell, State Farm Insurance; and TriGreen Equipment. When you do,
please inform them that you saw this, and we thank you.
Please come out tomorrow and support our growers and vendors. See you
there.

The farmers market will be open tomorrow. Please come out and support
our growers and vendors. We hope all y’all had a nice Independence
Day.

Tomorrow will be our annual Veteran’s Recognition Program where all
veteran’s will be treated to a free meal thanks to Mayor Hogeland
and city employees. The program is scheduled to start at 12:00 noon.
The meal will be served indoors from 11:00 AM to 12 noon and resume
directly after the program is finished. The ANG Color Guard will
present the Colors, the guest speaker will be from the Birmingham VAMC
speaking about the way the veterans can now do everything via the
Internet, and the Marine Corps League will perform the Iwo-Jima
reenactment; the program will be held outdoors. There will be a few
veteran organizations manning booths. The children’s story time will
be at 11:00 AM instead of the usual 11:30 AM. The Gardendale Fire
Dept. will have a children’s activity with a hose to hit a target.
There will be the growers/vendors selling produce, jellies, honey and
honey products, spices, baked goods, and balms, lotions and associated
products. America’s First Federal Credit Union will have their
mobile ATM unit set up for business. Please come out and support our
farmers/vendors and veterans.

Tomorrow, we’ll be on the blacktop because of the weather forecast
for 70 % chance of rain. Most of our farmers/vendors will be present
selling their products. Next week, we’ll be having our annual
Veteran’s Recognition program with Mayor Stan Hogeland as MC, guest
speaker from the Birmingham VAMC, and concluding with the Marine Corps
League performing the Iwo-Jima reenactment. The event will start at 12
noon outside on the stage; if inclement weather, the event will be
held indoors. The City of Gardendale will provide a meal for all
veterans and their family. The meal will be served inside the civic
center from 11 AM to 12 Noon, and will resume about 12:30 when the
outdoor program ends. Please inform any veteran that you know about
this program, and we hope to have a large attendance.

We’re planning on being on the grass tomorrow. Both of our young
business youths will be attending selling their frozen popsicles and
chocolate covered bananas (Sister’s Go Bananas) and cupcakes (Kid
Bakes). Due to family matters, we won’t have our jam and jelly
vendor, Sweet Home Chicago, attending. There will be honey, okra, some
blueberries, and other vegetables and fruits. One of our sponsors,
America’s First Federal Credit Union will have their mobile ATM unit
present. Please come out and support our local growers and vendors.
See you tomorrow.

Lucy McGill, from the library, will be reading children’s stories
on the stage at 11:30 AM. The recreation department will have the
inflatable bouncy available for the children to play on.

Tomorrow is predicted to be a little on the hot side with low
humidity. We’ll be setting up on the grounds now that it’s no
longer saturated with water. There will be a limited amount of
blueberries partially due to the rain causing them to swell. We’ll
have our two young entrepreneur’s, Sofia and Savanna Holliman,
selling chocolate covered frozen bananas; we have a new grower, Karen
Wallace of Miss Emily’s Tomatoes (I’ll let her explain the name),
selling honey, lotions, lip balm, some vegetables, and other produce;
and Cheyenne Batson, Chey’s Crunchy Crafts, selling soap, lotions,
balms, candles, and other items. There’ll be jams and jellies, baked
goods, vegetables and fruit. Normally, we’d have our caterer’s,
Thom and Lou Ann Duran of Two Fat Men Catering, selling their
delicious Italian meals but they have another obligation and will not
be with us this week. America’s First federal Credit Union will have
their mobile ATM unit on the premises. We’re doing something new
this season selling gift coupons. We’re selling them at cost in
groups of five for $5.00 for $25.00; they’re good for purchases of
produce only. They will be sold at our command post canopy. Please
come out and support our growers and vendors. See you tomorrow.

We’ll be open tomorrow on the parking lot because the grounds are
saturated; we’ll be there the normal time of 9 AM to 1 PM. We’ll
have honey, jams/jellies, baked goods, Italian meals, vegetables,
fruits, soaps, lotions, candles, and more. It was mentioned in the
first message that we’re now selling gift certificates in quantities
of five $5.00 certificates for $25.00; they are good for produce
purchases only. As for the library reading kick-off, it’ll be held
indoors at the civic center from 11 AM to 1 PM. We hope the weather
will be with us and that we’ll have a lot of customers purchasing
goods. See you tomorrow.

_As stated in the first message, the market will open on May 24th. _

We’ll have a food vendor present throughout the season, Thom and
Lou Ann Duran, Two Fat Men Catering, selling mostly Italian entrees;
their menu prices usually run between $5.00 and $8.00. Our kettle corn
vendor, Adam York with Backyard Kettlecorn, will be limited until he
recovers from a serious bout of flu and pneumonia. Sadly, our knife
sharpener, Bill Woodard, will probably not be attending because he’s
back on a serious regiment of chemo treatment due to his colon cancer.
We should have more information about new vendors in the next message.
We’re looking forward to a great upcoming season, and it will be
nice seeing our steady customers.