Gardendale Alabama Farmers Market

Tomorrow, we’ll have knife sharpening; bring your knives, mower
blades, and any garden tool requiring sharpening. We will have a food
vendor, Hammer’s Hotdogs, and there’s a delicious variety. We have
a new organic grower, Well Wishes Farm, who had a large choice of
different sweet peppers. One of our young entrepreneurs, Sister’s Go
Bananas, will be selling chocolate covered frozen bananas and
popsicles made from fruit. There will be jellies, jams, honey, chow
chow, baked goods, fresh eggs, non GMO meats, marinara sauce, and a
variety of fruit and vegetables. There will be story reading at 11:30
on the stage. Our Backyard Kettle Corn vendor will not be with us. Due
to the weather, Witt’s Farm will no longer be with us for the rest
of this season. Speaking of the weather, the local farmers have taken
quite a beating this year due to last year’s drought that carried
into this past May, lack of cold temperatures during the winter, and
the monsoon since then. Due to the storms, some of the markets were
either forced to close early or not open at all; thus, the
growers/vendors lost another means of selling their goods. Please come
out and support our growers and vendors.

Tomorrow, thanks to the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce, there will be
a day for children with an inflatable water slide, face painting, and
Yogurt Mountain selling their delicious frozen yogurt. A $1.00 fee for
face painting will be donated to the Southeast Blind Rehab Center
through the Birmingham VA Medical Center. We’ll have our usual
inflatable set up with the market, and Miss Lucy will be doing story
telling at 11:30 on the stage.
The market will be set up on the green now that the grounds have
dried. We will not have our food vendor Hammer’s Hot Dogs this week.
One of our young entrepreneurs, Kid Bakes (cup cakes), Maw Maw’s
Marinara Sauce and Still Water Farm will not attend due to various
reasons. We have a new organic grower from Mt. Olive, Jimmy McDuffee
of Well Wishes Farm, joining us this week. One of our sponsors,
America’s First Federal Credit Union will have their mobile ATM unit
present. For those that have knives, mower blades, and other gardening
tools that need to be sharpened, Bill Woodard will be attending next
week, July 27th. Come out and check out our local produce, baked
goods, jams and jellies, and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

Tomorrow, thanks to the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce, there will be
a day for children with an inflatable water slide, face painting, and
Yogurt Mountain selling their delicious frozen yogurt. A $1.00 fee for
face painting will be donated to the Southeast Blind Rehab Center
through the Birmingham VA Medical Center. We’ll have our usual
inflatable set up with the market, and Miss Lucy will be doing story
telling at 11:30 on the stage.
The market will be set up on the green now that the grounds have
dried. We will not have our food vendor Hammer’s Hotdogs this week.
One of our young entrepreneurs, Kid Bakes (cup cakes), Maw Maw’s
Marinara Sauce and Still Water Farm will not attend due to various
reasons. We have a new organic grower from Mt. Olive, Jimmy McDuffee
of Well Wishes Farm, joining us this week. One of our sponsors,
America’s First Federal Credit Union will have their mobile ATM unit
present. For those that have knives, mower blades, and other gardening
tools that need to be sharpened, Bill Woodard will be attending next
week, July 27th. Come out and enjoy check out our local produce, baked
goods, jams and jellies, and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

I was just informed that our kettle corn vendor will not be with us
tomorrow due to equipment failure. We will have story reading at 11:30
AM. For those that want their knives, and other tools, sharpened can
have it done on July 27th.

I want to thank those of you that attended the market last week. As
they found, we had to assemble on the parking lot due to the grounds
being saturated and there was concern that the vehicles would damage
the lawn. Some of the customers stated they’d like for us to keep
the market on the parking lot. There are several reasons against this
suggestion. First of all, the parking lot isn’t always available
because of multiple functions within the civic center requiring many
spaces. The heat can be twenty degrees hotter on the blacktop than the
actual temperature. When we used to set up at the K-Mart parking lot,
there were times that the temperature on the black top was between 115
and 120 degrees. We need to have access to electricity which is not
easily available. There’s not enough room for all the
growers/vendors. There were three groups that weren’t able to
attend, and there wasn’t room for them. So, we’ll be back on the
lawn tomorrow.
A couple of customers informed me that there are websites showing the
market hours are 1-5 PM. I contacted our IT division, and I was
informed that these are private websites and we have no power to
correct the hours. If we can be given the website address, the IT
division can try to contact them and ask to either have the time
removed or corrected.
Tomorrow should be a great day with a chance of afternoon storms.
There are watermelons, okra, peaches, blueberries, and a wide variety
of vegetables along with jams/jellies, baked goods, kettle corn, and
marinara sauce. Please come out and support our growers and vendors.

We’ll be setting up on the civic center parking lot near Main St.
due to the saturated ground. We won’t have the vendor that sells
marinara sauce or the one that sells that the baked goods (cookies,
brownies, etc.). Due to a lack of power, our young entrepreneur that
sells the frozen chocolate covered bananas won’t be attending; our
other young entrepreneur, selling cupcakes and ice coffee, will be
present. There will be knife sharpening though. Please come and
support our growers and vendors; it’s been a tough season for all
our market family due to the inclement weather and markets not
opening.

Tomorrow is another unpredictable day and we’re planning on having
the market open. There will be knife sharpening with Bill Woodard. Our
young entrepreneurs, Kid Bakes, selling cupcakes and ice coffee, and
Sister’s Go Bananas, selling chocolate covered frozen bananas and
frozen popsicles made from fruit. We’ll have our hot dog vendor,
Hammer’s Hotdogs, selling a delicious variety of hot dogs. The
mobile America’s First Federal Credit Union ATM will be on the
grounds, too. This will probably be the last day for blueberries due
to all the rain. There will be a variety of vegetables and fruits on
sale, as well as baked goods, honey, marinara sauce and jams and
jellies.
I had someone call me regarding green plums. I’m not a grower, so I
called those that are. I was informed that green plums are normally
harvested in mid-June and are no longer available. So, to answer the
question, there are no green plums.
We hope to see you after having to cancel for two weeks due to the
inclement weather. Please come out and support our growers and
vendors.

I neglected to state that the Veteran’s Recognition Program will
start at 12:00 noon.

I’m sorry to state that the market will be closed again tomorrow
due to the conflicting reports of possible rain and thunderstorms. We
will be holding the Veteran’s Recognition Program in the civic
center auditorium. There will be several guests including the VA
Medical Center, Blind Rehab Center Director, Rose Zuniga as the guest
speaker. If you’ve never seen the Iwo-Jima Reenactment, this will be
a great time to get an idea of what it was like. Those that have seen
it have stated it made a powerful impression for them. Please bring
your children so they may witness this, too. There will be a free meal
to any veteran, city employees, and those involved with the market.
The meal time is from 11:00 AM to noon and 12:30 PM until everyone is
finished.

Due to the potential effects of Tropical Storm Cindy, the market will
be closed tomorrow, June 22nd. Weather permitting next week, Bill
Woodard, our knife sharpener will be attending sharpening knives,
mower blades, and other garden tools; we’ll have our Veteran’s
Recognition program which has been something worth seeing.