Each summer, local farmers markets extend the legs on collapsable tables, spread out the bounty of the season and provide a community hub. Austin, Brookfield, Oak Park and Riverside all host events that provide a farm to kitchen experience and more.
The Austin Town Hall Farmers Market is held on Thursdays from 1-6 p.m., starting in June and going through the end of October. At 5610 W. Lake St. in Chicago, the event is managed by Forty Acre Fresh Market.
“We’re small but mighty,” market manager Lily Thornton said. “It’s more than just a grocery shopping experience. People come to sit and listen to our entertainment and chat with their neighbors and the vendors. We try to bring in a good amount of community resources to the market.”
Throughout the season, they host chef demos and workout classes. There is a DJ every week. As with all four markets mentioned here, they take SNAP cards and provide a dollar-for-dollar match to increase the purchasing power for fresh food.
In Brookfield the market, with more than 70 weekly vendors, is on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The location is the west side of the village hall at 8820 Brookfield Ave. The 19th season kicks off in June and runs through the end of October.
“We have a rotation this year of 138 vendors,” manager Gina Sharenow said. “This is one of the few markets that allows vendors to go one week or 12 weeks or all 21 weeks. Another unique thing about the market is three years ago, I incorporated a young entrepreneurs market.”
Children under the age of 16 can sell their wares. Top items are 3D printed animals, crochet projects, hand-made jewelry and body scrubs.
“It’s really neat for them to get the full experience of being a vendor,” Sharenow said. “They have to show up at the same time. They have to set up. They don’t leave until everybody else leaves.”
Oak Park is the granddaddy of these markets in the parking lot at 460 Lake St. This season will be their 51st on Saturdays 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., May through October.
“We focus on being a grower and producer market,” manager Jack Carmody said. “We don’t have any crafts or prepared foods where people are bringing in things that they themselves didn’t grow or raise.”
Special events include an August corn roast, September pie bake-off and end-of-the- season stone soup. Oak Park Township’s bus is available to bring seniors to the market and unsold produce is rescued and donated to Beyond Hunger’s food pantry when possible.
The Riverside Farmers Market typically has 20-24 vendors set up surrounding the historic water town in the central business district at 10 Pine Ave.
“Being a smaller market, something that we really focus on is trying to have as little to no overlap as possible when it comes to what the vendors sell,” Megan Siska, assistant director of Parks and Recreation, said. “That way we can still take advantage of having as many offerings as we possibly can.”
Operating from June through Oct. 7, the market takes place on Wednesdays from 2:30-7 p.m.
“It’s definitely a community place,” Siska said. “Some people come every week to do their shopping, and they go there with their families just to see people, to get a little bit of a walk around.”
Farmers markets are a civic glue – the town square of old.