Webb City Market Gets to Business

There is a little secret located in Webb City, located in Southwest Missouri. Here is this small community people meet each Tuesday and Friday to eat, shop for local produce and watch cooking demonstrations from local chefs.

The secret is the “booming” Webb City Farmers Market which consists of around 50 vendors and was the very first farmers’ market in the state to be named Farmers’ Market of the Year by AgriMissouri.

I took a trip down to the market and it was quite a treat. I watched as customers arrived to the market early one Tuesday morning to decide what they would be buying for that week’s dinner. As 11 am neared I watched as the vendors got ready for the flurry of customers and as Market Master Eileen Nichols got on a chair and welcomed everyone to the Webb City Market and rang the opening bell to signal to customers the market was open for business.

The market is run by Market Managers Eileen Nichols, Ron Walters and Marilyn Thornsberry and operates from 11 to 3pm every Tuesday and Friday under the pavilions at the Main Street entrance on King Jack Park and on the 2nd Saturday of the month from 10-1pm in downtown Webb City.

Some of the special features of the market include a weekly Shopping with the Chef cooking demo where local chefs buy produce from the market vendors and then then put on cooking demonstrations for the market audience, nutrition classes for food stamp customers, the 1st wireless EBT and credit card machine in Missouri, a community kids garden that is through the school district, music every Friday at the market from local musicians, Asian/Latino Festivals that includes cooking demonstrations, Fall Round-Up (includes sheep dog herding and kids events), three to four food concessions, and the Webb City Market Masters send out press releases and news alerts via email to local and area press and customers that sign-up for the service.

For more information about the Webb City Farmers’ Market please contact Eileen Nichols at 417-673-5866 or 417-483-8139.