Two area farmers markets open season this week

Live plants and animals, local honey and walnuts, handmade soaps and food stands will offered at two farmers' markets opening soon, in addition to locally grown produce.

Cape Farmers' Market opens at noon Thursday in the West Park Mall parking lot in Cape Girardeau.

Vendors will sell locally grown fruit and in-season vegetables. Live plants, including flowers and herbs, also will be available, said market manager Marilyn Peters.

Baked goods, fried pies, meats, eggs, local honey, walnuts and soaps will be on hand, as will be barbecue and doughnut stands.

About 25 vendors total will be there Thursday, Peters said.

"We found out today, we will have tomatoes and salmon," the latter from a vendor out of Carbondale, Illinois, who flies to Alaska to harvest the fish, then processes, freezes and ships them back to Carbondale. she said.

"We'll also have squash, lettuce, some of the early stuff, like onions and radishes," Peters said, as well as live plants so people can start their own backyard gardens.

Many growers have greenhouses or high tunnels now, Peters said, so they can get a jump on the growing season.

"You just don't know what the weather's going to do, early on," Peters said. "You have to play it by ear."

Peters said she helped form the market about 30 years ago in the parking lot of what now is the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Cape Girardeau.

"We've been at the mall four years now," Peters said.

"We're just getting off to the start," Peters added. "In another month, we'll have all sorts of things."

Cape Farmers' Market is open from noon to 5 p.m. each Thursday through Nov. 16.

The Bollinger County Farmers' Market is set to open for the season from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday behind the Co-Op in Marble Hill, Missouri, Barb Bailey said.

Bailey said she is an unofficial coordinator of the market, and she said about 10 vendors will be on site Saturday.

Bailey will be there with her goat's-milk soap for sale, she said.

Even though it's early in the season, she expects a variety of offerings.

"There's a lady with baked goods," Bailey said, "and some people with produce, live plants."

Bailey said they'll have an egg vendor as well. "We usually have rabbits, chickens, ducks," she added.

"We're a producer-only market, so if anyone has local produce or is interested in joining," Bailey said she'll be at the market Saturday to talk to prospective vendors.

The market will run each Saturday through the end of September.

Several other farmers' markets will open in May, including downtown Cape Girardeau's Riverfront Market, and markets in Jackson, Scott City and several other nearby towns.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

200 MO-34, Marble Hill, Mo.

3049 William St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.