FARMERS MARKET: FRESH FOODS, OLD FRIENDS

The parking lot was full. Auto air conditioners were being taxed to their limits.

Seconds before the clock struck 3 p.m., windows were rolled down, and people emerged from their vehicles.

More than 150 vegetable/fruit shoppers headed for vendors on the Plaza Galleria parking lot on Independence Street.

Baskets, buckets and pickup truck beds were filled with fresh vegetables, many picked earlier in the day.

Name a vegetable and it was there: Tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, corn, purple-hulled peas, peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, cabbage, eggplant, hot peppers and banana sweet peppers.

"This is great," said Vickie Clubb, of Cape Girardeau. "It's a social event. We can buy vegetables and visit with friends at the same time. And, you don't have to go the trouble of planting a garden."

Leslee Polina agreed.

"You see people here you know," she said.

Charlie Walker, of Alexandria, La., was there, picking through green tomatoes and the banana peppers.

"I love fried green tomatoes," she said.

A friend, Sherry Billings, of Monroe, La., had already selected a sack of purple-hulled peas.

With Billings and Walker was 10-year-old Junior Shale, 12, who had bag filled with grapes.

Billings and Walker are living in Cape Girardeau for the time being, while their husbands are engaged in construction at the new Procter & Gamble plant.

Rhoda Reeves, of Cape Girardeau, headed for the truck load of sweet corn.

"We love it," she said. "We cook it a number of ways."

Reeves said a favorite method of cooking the corn was in the microwave.

"We put it in shucks and all," she said. "We shuck it after it is cooked." Reeves also likes corn fixed on the barbecue grill. "We shuck it, wrap it in tinfoil with green peppers and onions," she said.

Vendors are weathering some hot weather to bring the produce to market.

"We pick some of our vegetables the evening before and keep in refrigerators in the barn," said Doris Landreth, of Cobden. The Landreths -- Doris and Mabel -- have six acres of vegetables.

Albert Flamm brought a pickup full of white corn Thursday. "We'll take another truck load to Cardondale Saturday," he said.

Flamm raises a variety of fruit. This week, he had blackberries and peaches.

Curvin and Rosie High were busy filling orders for home-made pies, cakes and breads of all sorts.

"We cook it at home," said Rosie High. "We bake every Wednesday for the market here, and everything is homemade."

The Highs call their operation the Down Home Bakery, located in Bluford, Ill., near Mt. Vernon. "We bake again Friday, for markets at Champaign and Carbondale," said High. "We're represented at both of these markets every Saturday."

Farmers markets across Missouri are at an all-time high this year, with 75, up 22 from 1997.

The Cape Girardeau Farmers Market includes 18 growers from Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

A second Cape Girardeau farmers market opened last weekend, and will continue Saturday, with a noon start at Lowe's Home Center parking lot.

"We had a number of producers last week, and have had calls from others this week," said Jon Stahal, assistant manager at Lowe's, which is sponsoring the weekly Saturday market along with the University of Missouri Extension office.

Additional information on the newest farmers market is available by contacting Stan Murray at 866-2262 or Stahal at 335-6500.

Both markets here are designed for vendors who produce fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers.