Waco Downtown Farmers Market — Attraction in Waco

I'm probably going to get a bit of backlash for writing this review.

My goal in sharing my thoughts is not to tear down the local farmers market, but more to offer observations to making it more appealing to locals.

So, here goes.

This farmers market (*in July) is limited to mostly meats, honeys and some ready to serve food and beverages.

What did we expect? Far more locally grown produce. Perhaps it was the wrong season?

It simply seemed that the freshly grown vegetables were only there in very limited amounts.

There was a purveyor of cheeses from a local cheese producer, yet, he sold us cheese that was not local at all. It was from Deary, Idaho and a creamery that we ACTUALLY (coincidentally) had visited years before. I thought I recognized the label, and indeed, looking more closely at it when we got home, I realized it was from Bush Creek Creamery.

So, it's okay to have NON local stuff at a Farmer's market, yet, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the market itself? Why not just go to H.E.B.?

Do we need coffee from Ecuador or Ethiopia? Well, perhaps if the beans are roasted locally. Otherwise, we can hop on the internet and have those products drop shipped fresher directly to us.

Mainly, let's get more cruciferous vegetables like Kale and Bok Choy. More staples like purple carrot and just simply vegetable varietals that can be grown by locals in smaller quantities, rather that all of the products we can get at H.E.B.

As Texans ,we expected poultry, pork and beef to be there, however, we'd like to know for certain the meat is organically raised, pasture raised, and grown without antibiotics or processed feed. This does make the cost of the meats a great deal higher, yet perhaps seeing the price of what it costs to produce meats can make us all consider that we should reduce our meat intake a bit and focus on higher quality. Good for our health and good for the world.

As far as the purveyors, everyone was quite friendly and engaging, which is part of the charm of any farmer's market, and one of the reasons we enjoy going to them.

We hope to see this market grow (no pun intended) further into something larger that might include locally made confectionaries or baked goods as well as more local arts and crafts.

We look forward to...

Mostly prepared food vendors, as a venue of that type - it's great. They need more vendors that sell farmers market products. (Not flea market type vendors that the owner commented to another reviewer that was just trying to suggest the same thing) in times past I was a vendor as well. And was rudely blown off as "not needed" before I could explain what I sold, and before I could barely get my name out or could offer my business card, in all fairness is was a younger woman, so maybe they have better coordination now that has a better sense of customer service, or maybe she was full of vendors at that time and didnt have time to deal with potential future vendors. (Which is still a poor excuse if so) I can say that is why I chose to stay away as a vendor. The treatment and attitude if they were full or busy wasnt great.

The vendors in general are very happy, talkative and in general love to talk to you about their products (food offerings). Its a great place to go for an impromptu lunch or meal out with a little bit of shopping that's out of the ordinary while supporting local small...

My mom and I went here as our first farmer's market experience. We were thrilled to see a nice selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as a few things we couldn't find in the grocery store, like a purple variety of pepper. We bought a basket of peaches from one vendor, and a nice box of fingerling potatoes from another. Onto the other vendors. I loved the fact that almost every vendor had a sampling station, so that you could really get to know all of the different options before you bought. We bought a spiced nut honey from one stand, and fresh home-made salsa from another. After purchasing the salsa, we saw a tamale stand and decided to buy lunch for later in the day, to go with the salsa. When we got to the stand, the vendor only had one chicken tamale, so she gave it to us for free! This was incredibly generous of her, and we gave it to my dad once we got home. We love that all of the ingredients are local, it really makes me feel connected to the food in some way....