The Belknap Farmers Market will return to 3rd Street and Brandeis Avenue this Thursday, featuring 14 diverse vendors selling everything from cookies and honey to tea and soap. The “grand opening” on May 19 will be held from 3:30-6 p.m.
For its third year on the Belknap campus, the Farmers Market will run each Thursday through Oct. 13 from 3:30-6 p.m.
The market will feature five new vendors this year, including DelectaBites (cookies, cakes, ice cream), Good Family Farm (fresh produce), Purl’s Pecans (pecan fudge), Crigger Farms (a beekeeping farm that sells honey, apple butter, peanut butter, honey bourbon balls and more), and Paradise Tea (several types of tea).
Returning vendors include:
- Emily & Travis Ross’s New Farm (formerly Em & T’s Louisville Farm, selling CSA pork shares and pork cuts)
- UofL’s Get Healthy Now (providing activity-based demonstrations and information)
- Granny’s Delights (vegetables, canned pickles, salsa, jams, jellies and homemade bread loaves)
- Green Farm (fresh vegetables and fruit, stuffed pancakes, miso noodles and more)
- Lowe Creek Farm (apple turnovers, ginger cookies, apple butter, dried apples, frozen blueberries, baby carrots, chocolate granola and more)
- Pop’s Kettle Corn (kettle corn, caramel corn, lemon shakeups, iced tea)
- Swallow Rail Farm (eggs, lamb, whole and half chicken)
- Use Good Scents (deodorants, lotion, body butter, detergent, hand soap and more, all made with organic oils and butters)
- UofL’s Health Promotion Wellbeing Central will also be on hand with its RAH-Mobile, transporting produce around campus and providing recipes for the Farmers Market newsletter.
Darlene Shircliff, the Farmers Market assistant manager, said variety is important.
“We try and keep our vendors diverse. This year, for example, we’ll have everything from a pork vendor to a bee keeper. We think it’s important to bring different things to the market to give our customers a variety,” she said.
Additionally this year, the Louisville Water Company will provide pure tap water and door prizes will be handed out.
On Sept. 8 and Oct. 6, Chef Mat Shalenko, a formally-trained chef and certified health coach, will provide cooking demonstrations and samples.
The Farmers Market is a member of Kentucky Proud and Shircliff touts its commitment to sustainability and healthy eating efforts.
“We hope to support local – Kentucky and Indiana – farmers and promote healthy eating on campus for both students and employees,” she said. “We are getting our students more involved and trying to promote it more to them this year. Once people find out about it, they love it. It’s just a great thing to do.”
For more information, check out the Belknap Farmers Market Facebook page.
The Gray Street Farmers Market also opens May 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The market, which caters to the HSC campus and surrounding neighborhoods, features 11 vendors, including some who are available at both markets. More information about the Gray Street Farmers Market is available here.
