Market Brings Local Variety

Photo by Laurie Triplette

Opened to large crowd on May 14.

Oxford has a new farmers’ market — not to be confused with the farmers’ market that still operates on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s at the Mid Town Shopping Center. The Oxford City Market opened for the first time on Tuesday, May 14, at 2650 West Oxford Loop.

The Oxford City Market brings additional local-food sourcing, diversity of goods, and an extra market day to the Lafayette County community. Thirteen market vendors had signed up, and 12 actually had enough produce ready to come to town on opening day and sell fresh local herbs, and herbal products, strawberries, honey, veggies, pastured poultry and eggs, and an array of fresh-ground, baked, and preserved goods.

The participating vendors declared opening day a success. A throng of would-be-buyers converged on the open-air market at the start of business. They bought just about everything being offered for sale during the afternoon, accompanied by tantalizing food aromas and the thrumming sound of the blues from a live band. By 5:30 pm, some vendors had completely sold out of their wares, and the rest were down to a fraction of what they had brought.

Kelly Marcy is an intern for the summer at Yokna Farms
Photo by Laurie Triplette

Yokna Bottom Farms, Woodson Ridge Farms, Native Son Farm, and the Levee Run Farm were local-area farms at the new market. Georgeanne Ross of The Original Grit Girl “traveling” grist mill was a strong presence, selling her stone-ground grits, cornmeal, polenta, and masa, which normally are available only to the food trade. The BTC Old Fashioned Grocery from Water Valley also manned a booth to sell its favorites such as pimento cheese, crab cakes, chicken salad, and BTC-roasted coffee.

Other vendors included The Creative Kitchen (yum, pralines and fried apple pies); Mardis Honey Farm with fresh honey (that the market also used in its lemonade and sweet tea for customers); Good Food for Oxford, with t-shirts and educational materials about its Farm-to-School Program for Oxford; M&J Farms, with handmade laundry soaps; St. Bethany Fresh, with fresh tomatoes; and Sunlight Springs Organic, with a variety of produce.

The Oxford City market is run by the City of Oxford, under part-time director Katie Morrison, with grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The land for the market site was donated by John Trezevant, owner of Trezevant Realty Corp. The market will continue to be open every Tuesday from 3 to 7 pm, and may expand to a second weekday. The City needs additional vendors and volunteers to assist with market-day setup and take-down, selling, and programming for children’s activities, cooking demonstrations, gardening presentations, and related healthy-living programs.

To volunteer or rent a market space, and for more information, contact katiemorrison@oxfordms.net, or visit www.oxfordcitymarket.com or fb.com/oxfordcitymarket (662) 832-7257. –– Laurie Triplette

Laurie Triplette is a noted author and food writer for HottyToddy.com. Follow her weekly posts in hottytoddy.com

Email Laurie Triplette at ldtriplette@aol.com