Madison County Farmers’ Market opens at new location

The Madison County Farmers’ Market opened for the season last Friday with a ribbon cutting sponsored by the Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Located at Gifford Lumber Company in Fredericktown, the Market strives to improve the quality of food available in Madison County and to develop a strong partnership between local farmers and consumers.

“What we hope to do is promote fresh produce that is locally grown,” said Jenny Sikes, Co-Chair of the Farmers’ Market. ” There really is a demand for produce and crafts that are grown and produced right here in Madison County.”

The market hopes to become an outlet for a community that is conscious of healthy and sustainable farming methods. They also plan on hosting several educational programs and demonstrations regarding sustainable farming throughout the year.

“We plan on doing several demonstrations throughout the summer to include a bee keeping demonstration in July. We also plan to host a ‘kids and farming’ program and add some live entertainment,” Sikes said.

The event began in 2009, and currently has many farmers and vendors selling a wide variety of products, including herbs, vegetables and hand made goods. Only products grown in the state of Missouri may be sold at the market.

The Farmers’ Market will cater to high quality homemade and homegrown products. Displaying of overripe, spoiled or unusable products is not permitted. No garage sale, rummage sale items are allowed. Live animals are not allowed.

A complete list of rules and regulations is available on the web at: www.fredericktownmissouri.net/blog/…/MCFM-Rules-and-Regs1.pdf