Heading back from a visit of Soulard market in St. Louis, Missouri, we came across Kirkwood farmers’ market. This little market was founded in 1976 and serves the community. It consists of a permanent structure.

Approaching the market from the small parking lot, we were greeted by a friendly sculpture: an iron farmer painted in green.

The variety of products is quite large despite the size. All the standard produces were available. Melon were in season as well as tomatoes, corn, etc. and my favourite: potatoes. Pretty much basic and Mid-Western.

A few unusual things to me were the elk & bison meat in the freezer. I have never seen them were I live. The bison summer sausage we tried had a smooth and nicely spiced taste – worth a purchase.

To get an overview over the market does not cost a lot of time. Being there for the first time one feeling persists: it reminds rather of an outdoor supermarket than of a farmers’ market. Probably one needs to be a local and develop some kind of relationship with vendors to fully appreciate its beauty.

All in all: reminds rather of an outdoor supermarket, bison sausage was nice.

A little link list:

• Official market website from the city of Kirkwood
• A post with nice pictures from Carrie Nenonen
• A nice post of the Kirkwood Public Library with a list of books related to farmers’ markets
• A short selection of farmers markets in St. Louis
• An interactive map of farmers’ markets in St. Louis area from the St. Louis Dispatch

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Some time ago I blogged on Soulard Market in St. Louis, Missouri and I knew it would not be the last time. And so I re-visited it after a few years.

Soulard Market is still impressive to me. It has a very nice, quite original choice of products, catering for needs of all types of communities. The meat comes from all kinds of animals, incl. frogs, the vegetables appear in all their shapes and colours, there is nuts I have not seen elsewhere like whole black walnuts, which are really hard to crack, there is a great spice shop, of course there are also cheeses, even raw milk ones, and seafood is available (sea is quite far). But there is also funny popcorn, donuts etc. Not everything is regional, but everything is interesting and mostly of good quality.

And the crowd visiting the market seems to be as the market itself: rather unpretentious, not flashy, and with very diverse backgrounds, kind of little melting pot. Often people are coming with trolleys to carry their purchases, as it seems to be affordable for everyone unlike on some farmers markets.

Apparently a lot of vendors remain the same as the market has not changed much over the years. It has resisted any potential gentrification as described e.g. for Boston. Yes I missed the vendor of the hot sauces. The Goose Poop (a relish) stand was new to me and showed clearly attempts to create an own brand, rather unusual for this market. There was a new food stand as well, probably the one & only which might be close to be called hipster. They sold nice spring rolls, wraps and alike, ginger salad and more (how does that fit with Dr. Pepper, guys?). But otherwise? …

There seemed to be no substantial change. Is this good? Well, people seem to like it, the flow of visitors never stopped despite the hot humid summer. It is also nice to see some things become a tradition, having own roots and may be called something like home. Despite the lack of change, I have not observed complacency.

I am really curious about the times to come and how new generations of visitors and vendors will shape the market or how the master plan of the city of St. Louis will be put into action (or has it already been put into action?).

All in all: Soulard Market remains one of my favorite ones for its wide diversity in products and visitors, for its down to earth approach, and maybe for the stubbornness to remain as it is.

A little link list

• The official website – kind of …
• The one of the Historic Soulard Market Merchants Association Official Website soulardmarketstl.com
• On facebook
• On Twitter
• Soulard market on the St. Louis city site
• Master plan of the city of St. Louis concerning the market
• An interesting perspective on the development of the Boston Public Market and its impact on gentrification – from untappedcities.com
• A nice video presenting the market from Phil Stephenson

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