Market choices in Marion

MARION - Market-goers in the Marion area will have a choice this Saturday, June 12, 2010.

A new Uptown Marion Farmers Market is set for 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Marion Square Park, while longtime market vendors will continue at their traditional site at Marion's east end from 8-11:30 a.m.

The new market, a partnership between the Marion Chamber of Commerce and St. Luke's Hospital, is the first of three scheduled for this summer.

Others will be July 10 and Aug. 14.

Uptown Marion expects to have 45 vendors selling fresh produce, baked goods, honey, flowers, plants, meat, wines and artisan items.

Pat Carlson, the city's coordinator for the longtime Marion market, said about 20 vendors regularly sell produce, baked goods and more at the market at the East End Shopping Center, 3375 Seventh Ave.

“Some vendors will participate in both and others will not,” she said.

Carlson cited the close parking, restrooms and covered shelter, built for the farmers market in the 1970s, as amenities that the vendors and customers appreciate.

“It's so easy for (vendors) to load and unload their goods,” she said of the east end site.

The Uptown Marion market was an idea suggested during Imagine8, Marion's community visioning process.

Uptown Marion will go beyond a traditional market, with recycling information, a cooking demonstration from Hy-Vee, children's entertainment, a display from the Marion Fire Department and healthy living programming.

For an updated list of area farmers markets see:  

http://thegazette.com/blogs/homegrown/2010/04/29/find-eastern-iowa-farmers-markets-here