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Farmer's Market celebrates new upgrades

June 4, 2014

The City of East Lansing Farmer’s Market opens for the summer this Sunday, featuring a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate recent improvements to the market site.

Van Antwerp said the improvements include a performance plaza, newly accessible pathways, bike parking, and a new parking lot. She said the parking lot is especially important because the former lot had drainage issues.

Market manager Abby Rudnicki said the new lot not only has parking spaces for cars, but also permanent dotted markings allotting space for the vendors. She added that the site received a new sign and basketball hoops, and the old vegetation was replaced with new landscaping.

Van Antwerp said this year the market welcomes five new vendors: Glory Bee Sweet Treats , Rust Belt Roastery , Wooden Shoe Herb Farm , Hickory Knoll Farms Creamery, LLC and Jenny’s Sweet Treats.

Rudnicki said there are 24 vendors in total, consisting of both annual and part-time sellers. The market stipulates all vendors must provide 100 percent homegrown products. Trailer Park’d “Slow” Fast Food, a hot food vendor, will also attend the farmer’s markets.

Meche Holguin, manager of Fork in the Road, the “brick and mortar” restaurant counterpart of Trailer Park’d, said the restaurant’s main goal is to offer food made from locally sourced ingredients, and they enjoy participating in the East Lansing Farmer’s Market because many of its vendors are the suppliers of those ingredients.

“People who are loyal to the truck often go to the farmer’s market,” Holguin said.

The market typically draws 1,000 to 1,200 customers each week. This number usually grows in the fall when MSU students return, Van Antwerp said.

“We have a group of really, really dedicated vendors ... and a really dedicated customer base as well,” she said.

Rudnicki said she is extremely optimistic about the success of the market this year given the recent enhancements and efforts.

“People prefer the farm-to-table method,” she said. “It’s a huge, important part of the community. It brings people together.”

The 2014 market will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays at 280 Valley Court in Valley Court Park, and the market season will run through Oct. 26.

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