Irvington Farmers Market

There are 6 vendors at this «Farmer’s Market». Two them sell hummus and pita. I love myself some hummus and pita, but when ¹⁄₃ of your vendors sells the same thing, it’s time to add more vendors for a little variety.

It’s located one few blocks away from the Lloyd Center. It’s very small with 10 – 15 vendors only, not many to choose from. The business hours is from 10:30am to 2pm on Sunday only. We bought strawberry, plum, and corn and they all very fresh and taste very good.

Serendipity! We walked by a little early and the fresh fruit stand was up and ready and OMG! All the different berries and the cherries. My wife was so excited to have all of the fresh fruit ready to eat at a moments notice. It’s small but who can beat fresh berries.
If you’re from our of town and want to stay away from the big crowds this market is for you!

Great SMALL thing to do on a Sunday, but isn’t really great to occupy time or to buy all your groceries from.
They also had two gyro booths and two flower booths among the 15 or so vendors– so better planning may have helped that one! My other criticism is that their advertising is horrible. Their website, facebook and all other info is conflicting or out of date which drives me a little bit crazy.
The few homemade product and veggie booths that are there are super nice though and carried a good selection so THEY are why I’ll go back of course :)

I miss the Irvington Farmers Market. Yes, it’s small, it only spans one block. Yes, it has short hours, it runs from 10:30 — 2:30 on Sundays and yes the options are limited seeing as it is just the one block and all. But with all of its limitations, I still love it. Why? Let’s start with the gorgeous $ 5 bouquets of flowers. Like any reasonable person, I love flowers but I rarely want to spend the money to have them around and I certainly don’t get them gifted often enough (chivalry is dead). At $ 5 a pop, I was able to decorate my home with a rotating selection of flowers all summer long. The arrangements are always beautiful and the flowers are in top condition. On the last day of the market, my friend and I each bought three bouquets because we were so sad to see them go. We looked pretty ridiculous walking down the street. I simply cannot wait for the market to return so I can fill my world with beauty once again.
Next there are the apples. I bought apples from Kiyokawa Family Orchards by the bazillion because they always had good deals on juicing apples. I don’t care if they’re ugly or bruised, they’re just going in the juicer anyway. My juicing addiction was very well satisfied by this stand, I look forward to their return as well.
The rest of the market has a rotation of fresh produce, homemade jams, Missionary Chocolates, hummus, salsa and most importantly, good prices on seasonal produce. When cucumbers were three for a $ 1, I bought a ton. When beets were buy one, get one free, I stocked up. The deals were always plentiful, which is why I went pretty much every week all summer long.
Though I love that the Irvington Farmers Market is never crowded (unlike the competing Sunday market, King), I hope it gets more vendors and a bit more attention so it can flourish and I can have a market to rely on every Sunday. At the very least, swing by and pick up a bouquet of flowers. Your wife/​girlfriend/​husband/​boyfriend/​partner/​friend/​co-​worker/​neighbor/​will appreciate it. Or do as I do, and get them for yourself. Who needs chivalry when you got a crisp Lincoln burning a hole in your pocket?

This is like a farmers market with training wheels. It’s almost a primer in what to expect of a bigger, more unruly farmers market. Since the Irvington Farmers Market is new and spans only one small block in the Lloyd/​SuGu neighborhood, it definitely looks like an outdoor community market in its rudimentary stage, as far as the variety of vendors and the number of visitors it attracts. Also, with a window of four hours of potential perusal and purchase time on Sundays, even if the pickings aren’t slim, the picking time is limited.
On the other hand, because of that less established quality, you can actually walk slowly and observe all the different booths without going elbow to skull with the Dog and Stroller Mafia. It’s rather liberating to stand in the street while eating a fresh sausage product from the meat tent (not a euphemism) and not getting mowed over by some obtuse family with their 4.5 offspring and a wheeled baby transporter that costs more than my car. Plus, no Trustafarians beating drums and butchering Bob Marley songs in sight. On one hand, I hope this farmers market gains a wider audience because the mostly-​bland stretch of businesses needs this sort of event. On the other hand, Simone de Beauvoir was right. Hell is other people (at farmers markets).
As the Irvington Farmers Market accepts more sellers and uses its website more efficiently, I hope to bump it to a higher rating. I mean, do you really need two vendors hawking pricey bouquets of flowers when there’s nobody in sight selling cookies? But it’s probably best enjoyed now, before it becomes bigger than its good intentions. Kind of like the Dog and Stroller Mafia.