(Submitted by Bowling Green Downtown Farmers Market)
We are onto Week 4 of our downtown market! This Wednesday evening the Firefly Nights committee will have a market booth sharing all their upcoming events this summer! For those not familiar with this event; “Firefly Nights is nonprofit organization dedicated to planning and executing four strategic events in the heart of our city. The mission of Firefly Nights is to foster the diverse, neighborly, and lively atmosphere of Downtown Bowling Green while giving the community an opportunity to gather for fun, food and entertainment. The festivals will be held the third Friday of the month, June through August, within the North and South blocks of Main Street.”
Our market runs from 4 – 7 p.m., Wednesday nights in the Huntington Bank parking lot on the corner of South Main and Clough streets. Huge thank you to Huntington Bank for donating this space to us, and giving the market plenty of room to grow!
Speaking of growing, this market is almost at max capacity! We have brought on 15 plus new vendors who join the market on a daily, half season or full season basis. New vendors include; Just Jammin and Stuff, In Every Season Calligraphy, Flatland’s Coffee, Calico, Sage, and Thyme, Kitten Pants LLC, Maumee Greens, River Valley Pasta, Z Farms, Thurman Family Farms, Our Backyard Garden, Uncle Stevie’s Signature Sauces, and Heart of Ryan Family Farm. New vendors are joining each week so make sure to stop by to check them out!
We are also adding a lot of culinary components to the market, including food vendors! Weenie Dawgs (specializing in hot dogs and fried bologna sandwiches) is the newest to join our team. This week Country Lane BBQ will join in on the fun with their signature Pulled Pork Sundae!!! Our veteran foodies include Garry’s Kettle Corn & Ron’s Concessions (Ice Cream) so there is always plenty to eat and drink at market! Many of our vendors offer samples as well, so none of our customers should leave hungry!
While enjoying your market goods, stay and listen to the current band on the Stone’s Throw Stage from 5:30-7 p.m. This week Jack Schilib will be performing some original songs and classic covers! Thanks to The Stones Throw Restaurant for sponsoring the stage and to Tim Concannon for making the arrangements and all the musicians who donate their time to perform each Wednesday Night! This is a pre-show to the Hump Day Review at The Stones Throw every Wednesday evening.
We’ve been able to bring back the Frequent Buyer program, thanks to the support of Newlove Realty, Thayer Family Dealerships and Allstate Insurance. Each time a shopper spends $5 at a stand, they get a stamp on their card. When the card is full the card will be turned in for $5 in Downtown Dollars. For those not familiar with the Downtown Dollars program, over 70 downtown businesses accept them for goods and services. You can get a frequent buyer card and redeem a full card at the market info booth. Last year, about $2000 in Downtown Dollars were awarded to shoppers.
We have a smorgasbord of events coming up this year for market! Next week Bowling Green Parks and Recreation will hold a 5K Fun Run and Vegetable Relay Race. It is Free TO PARTICIPATE!!! You can enjoy the 5K solo and have a team of 3 for the relay race! You can pre-register by calling BG Parks and Rec at 419-354-6223, or emailing Ivan at ikovacevic@bgohio.org . You can also register in person by arriving at the market early to the BG Park’s and Rec Table before the race at 5:30 p.m! Parks and Rec will return the next week for Bike Safety Awareness as well as a date in July!
Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce will also return this year for the Pork O’Lean Fireworks Fundraiser on June 20th! Join them for the Belleville Brothers Market Pork-a-Lean Cookout fundraiser to help sponsor your Bowling Green Community Fireworks. Thank you to there sponsors Belleville Brother’s Market, Walmart, and Downtown BG Farmer’s Market!
A full schedule of all the music and special events at the market will be available very soon on our website at bgfarmersmarket.org Special thanks to Julie Martini and Martini Creative for hosting and updating the website as a part of a sponsorship with the market.
SNAP program will be up and running this week for shoppers and our market is a designated pick up location for the CSA program. To learn more about this program visit the website for Riehm Farms at FunAcres.net.
