Downtown Farmer's Market Outgrows The MarketPlace

The twice-a-month Lake Wales Downtown Farmers' Market has been on a tremendous growth curve for the last year, and a recent Saturday morning found nearly 50 vendors offering a great variety of products to throngs of customers.

Fresh food ranging from baked goods, fried cheese, "cotton candy cupcakes," guava pastries, and doughnuts to empanadas, Thai spring rolls, and hot dogs were popular. Those were accompanied by teas and coffees, including the iced variety as well as Cuban-style café con leche.

Fresh and organic produce, organic eggs, herbs, spices, and oils sat side-by-side with colorful booths filled with art, jewelry, candles, and novelty signs. Honey, bath and body products, and live plants were also available, including fruit trees.

"It's the biggest little farmer's market in Polk County," facilitator Lynn Greenfield said of the event. Under Greenfield's supervision and promotion, the event has expanded over the last two years, and draws ever-larger numbers of shoppers who mark their calendars for the event. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. two Saturdays each month, and draws vendors and customers from throughout the region.

The area covered with booths, and filled with shoppers, has now swelled out of the confines of the appropriately-named MarketPlace plaza to include a portion of Market Street south of Stuart Avenue. The event is sponsored by Lake Wales MainStreet, and is held on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, throughout the year.