APPROXIMATELY 500 VISITORS

Opening Day was a success in our eyes. We did an unofficial count of visitors and figure we clicked in approximately 500 people who joined us for the day.

The day started early at 7:30 and we chalked out the parking lot for the booth spaces. Due to rain the day before this had to be last minute. But it all worked out and vendors started showing up at 8am to start setting up. The rain held off and the sun even came out at the end.

I think we learned a lot and I think the vendors did too. Now we will take that knowledge and figure out what to do to make next months market even better. The great thing about starting out a market slow like this is we get the chance to have some time in between to perfect it, try things another way and see. Then when you figure out your niche and what sells best and what doesn’t, you have a recipe for success and we all win.

I ate yummy enchiladas, roasted corn on the cob, jicama on a stick with sugar & chilies, tamales and ice cream popsicles. What a day. I took home cilantro, cherries, avocados, watercress, beets, onions, rice, bath salts and earrings. And on top of all that I met some great folks and neighbors. I put faces to names and enjoyed hearing about how each vendor did at the end of the day.

All in all a success I think. So join us on July 18th, the third Saturday, for our next market day. In the meantime, you can find a vendor on Friday early evening in the same Napoli’s Pizzeria parking lot with extra produce if you missed Saturday’s market or just want some more. Just one more way of continuing to serve South Park and Georgetown with healthy food options.

3 MORE DAYS: OPENING DAY OF THE MARKET

The grand opening of the new South Park Market on Wheels is just about here. For almost a year, the community has pulled together, gathered at meeting, filled our surveys, and worked to make this dream a reality. And now is is just 3 days away.

We’d like to take the time to thank those who were instrumental in the beginning, middle and end of this project. We’d like to thank all of you in advance for your support once we open. Our dream to have this grow into more often next year and truly supply South Park with food and good food is huge. And we want to extend this big welcome to our Georgetown friends as well. We hope you will come and enjoy our maret as well. Georgetown gives us several great events and places to go and things to do. We’d like to give something back to you as well. A great place to get food, produce and tamales.

Hope to see you all there. Remember, we are open the third Staurday of each month now through September in the Napoli’s Pizza parking lot on the Southeast corner of 14th and Cloverdale in South Park.

FIRE CODE PAPERS SUBMITTED TODAY

It’s been great fun putting this whole thing together. We certainly have learned a lot. Mostly because none of us or actually none of us have ever done anything like this before.

But today we submitted the fire code schematics which show the lay of the land, the 2 entrances, space between the booths for walking. Where each vendor will be and what they are selling. Even if the need electricity or whatnot. Basically it’s like a big blueprint. So it looks like we have just confirmed our maximum level for vendors. Coming in with a big show this year, our first year, at 32 vendors and an area for music and dance performance.

We have market bags designed but no money yet to actually order them until we start to make money. So maybe next year.  With thhese many vendors we are so excited that we will be able to actually be close to sustainable because we will make some money. And that is with only 4 markets this year. Next year, even better.

We have about one week to go and we are all excited to show you our stuff. We think you will be excited about the variety we have and how local a lot of these folks are. See ya on June 20th.

VENDOR MEETING TONIGHT

Tonight at 5pm will be another vendor Co-op meeting at the ECOSS info center on 14th and Cloverdale. We will go over all important last minute information. Don’t miss it!

MARKET MANAGER TEAM

PLEASED TO INTRODUCE STEVE GISEL

New to the team is Steve Gisel. He is a great guy that will help Carlos. Together the two of them will help with some of the final preparations of making this market open and be successful. Steve has been volunteering at Marra Farms and his dream is to have his own farm someday, run a CSA and sell at farmers markets. Carlos and Steve are co-managers and will divide their efforts up to get through the long yet to do list we just made.

We are excited to have him helping us and to have you all get a chance to meet him. And if you ever thought about being a beekeeper, Steve just might be able to help you get set up. You can meet Steve at the market.

VOLUNTEERS ALSO NEEDED

We are looking for volunteers. This is a non-profit or it will be and it definately is all about no profit for sure right now. We have no money really. The steering committee is working for free to make the market happen. A couple folks live in South Park and other volunteers are from around the area but not even in South Park, they just believe in the need. If you would like to volunteer, please contact us at southparkmarket@gmail.com