Farmers market season begins this week in Cape Girardeau

Even though Mother Nature is slacking in the seasonable temperature department, get ready to start seeing farmers markets in the coming weeks offering all kinds of local goodies throughout Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Cape Girardeau Farmers Market

Cape Girardeau Farmers Market manager Marilyn Peters said it will open for the season Thursday in the parking lot of West Park Mall and the location has only moved slightly. The hours haven't changed, though -- noon to 5 p.m. every Thursday.

"We've just switched to a different side of the lot. We're on the Macy's side," Peters said. "We'll have signs up that day, so everyone will know where to go."

Peters said popular vendors this year include Two Sides Grilling, featuring barbecue beef, and newcomer Wild Alaska Salmon, with freeze-dried Alaskan salmon. Three Sisters Alpaca Products from Marble Hill, Missouri, will be selling clothing: hats, gloves and socks produced from their Alpaca farm, along with Buchheit and Illinois-based Bison Bluff providing beef and pork.

Sharla Troyer makes fresh doughnuts April 21, 2016, at Grandma's Old Fashioned Donuts stand at the Cape Girardeau Farmers Market.Southeast Missourian file

Home Sweet Home bakery also will be there Thursday, Peters said, offering "extremely good" cinnamon rolls and cupcakes.

As for the selection of produce -- sweet potatoes, winter gourds, plants, cut flowers, lettuce, spinach, kale and "a little bit of zucchini squash" will be available Thursday.

"But mainly it'll be vegetable plants and flowered plants," Peters said.

In addition to the produce available, the Mennonite bakery called Tasty Bakery will be selling their "wonderful baked goods," Peters said.

Charlotte Eftink will represent her business, The Natural Way, with "all kinds of soaps and lotions" made from herbs.

Jenny Lindenberg picks out a hanging basket from Bass Farms on April 21, 2016, at the Cape Girardeau Farmers Market.Southeast Missourian file

During the course of the season, Peters said peaches are the most popular item at the market, along with sweet corn, tomatoes, apples, green beans -- and the Amish--made doughnuts.

"We have just about everything that can be grown in this area," Peters said.

Cape Riverfront Market

The Cape Riverfront Market begins its season bright and early at 8 a.m. May 5 and continues weekly in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Events coordinator and Cape Riverfront Market manager Emily Vines said the only thing they don't have officially scheduled yet is live music, but they do have 40 vendors anxious to begin the new season downtown.

Bill Williams, right, picks out sweet potatoes from Karl Sweiter's stand at the Jackson farmers market in 2014.Southeast Missourian file

"The majority of those vendors are actually seasonal, which means they have signed on to vend at every single market," Vines said. "Twenty six are returning vendors that have been there for years."

Vines said they've "got a full lot on opening day," and she has added seven vendor spaces this year because of the demand. There has been "a little bit of moving around" with their music, demonstration and welcome tents, which Vines said "isn't necessarily a bad thing," since it's made more room available for vendors.

The Cape Riverfront Market "definitely has grown" since it began in 2012, Vines said, and this will be its seventh year. The market started out as a "volunteer-driven market," she said, that was just "housed under the umbrella of Old Town Cape."

"Since it's grown so much, become so popular and we've gotten more support with sponsors available, we've actually been able to move this market in-house for the first time," Vines said.

Vines said they do have a "handful" of new vendors this season that have never vended before, but are excited.

"They wanted to be there every single Saturday, so we're looking forward to it," Vines said.

Vines said Cape Riverfront Market and Cape Girardeau Farmers Market are two totally different markets, but at the same time they share a lot of the same vendors, having "really good" relationships.

Returning longtime vendors this year include Laughing Stock Farmstead, Grandma's Old-Fashioned Donuts, Tickled Pink -- a flower vendor offering fresh-cut wild flower bouquets -- and the only blackberry vendor, Ridge Road.

"He shows up every Saturday with fresh blackberries; and they sell like crazy," Vines said.

Not all vendors are seasonal, Vines said. Some are bimonthly, or daily, which means they can pick and choose which Saturdays they're there.

Some of the new vendors include Wild Alaska Salmon -- the only fish vendor -- and "The German Cook."

His name is Christian Voight and "is very, authentically German," according to Vines.

"He's going to be preparing German foods on-site, like bratwurst and German potato salad," Vines said. "He also participates at the Jackson Oktoberfest. He sells out quickly there, and he's also going to do breakfast some mornings like brats and scrambled eggs."

Bon Bon's of Cape Girardeau will be back this year with macaroons, cookies and "all kinds of baked goods," Vines said, but in the form of a food truck.

Jackson Farmers Market

Jackson Farmers Market begins May 1 at the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Train Station and will feature 14 vendors, according to market manager Nancy Gillard, including "The German Cook" Voight with homemade salads, pickled goods and all kinds of German meat specialties.

Other vendors include Naturally Laura by Laura Miesner -- selling baked goods and jams -- and Infinity Farms and Menards Farms offering produce of all kinds. Gillard of Gillard Local Raw Honey also will be representing and selling honey, bees wax, furniture polish, pollen and creamed honey spreads.

All information regarding Cape Girardeau Farmers Market, Cape Riverfront Market and Jackson Farmers Market may be found on their Facebook fan pages.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632

Pertinent address:

West Park Mall, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

35 S. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, Jackson, Mo.