Ruston Farmers Market

Taste of Summmer Fest is Here!

Our annual Taste of Summer Festival is here. We'll have lots of goodies prepared by our fabulous vendors. We'll also have music by The Back Forty Band starting at 9:00. Our kitchen demo will teach you how to prepare a vegetable soup without turning on a burner -- great for getting your veggies and yet keeping cool in the summertime. We'll hand out recipe cards as well. Come on out for all the fun!

We are still on the hunt for new vendors, so if you are interested, the application and rules can be found on the Vendors page of this site. Specific questions can be directed by email to info@rustonfarmersmarket.org or by contacting Jean McWeeney at 318-255-9175.

North Louisiana Farm Fresh, the umbrella organization over the farmers market, is seeking volunteers for the 2014 season. If you would like to help see our market thrive and grow, if you are a not-for-profit organization that would like to schedule a fundraiser, or if you would just like some more information, contact Jean McWeeney at 318-255-9175 or by email at info@rustonfarmersmarket.org if you're interested.

Market Info

Market hours are from 8 a.m. to noon in the public parking lot at the corners of Monroe and Louisiana Avenues (see map below). For a weekly list of what our vendors will have to offer, see This Week at the Market. The Ruston Farmers Market accepts SNAP/EBT cards for eligible products sold by our vendors. For more information and to get SNAP tokens come to the Welcome tent.

Our desire is to always provide high quality, fresh, locally grown produce; plants; flowers; and value-added goods to Ruston and the North Louisiana region. Sign up for our newsletter below, or Like us on facebook (www.facebook.com/RustonFarmersMarket), follow us on Twitter, or keep in touch by email: info@rustonfarmersmarket.org.

If you would like to sign up for the RFM Newsletter, please complete the form below:

North Louisiana Farm Fresh

North Louisiana Farm Fresh (NLFF) is the 501(c)3 non-profit umbrella for the Ruston Farmers Market. All donations to NLFF and the market are tax deductible. For more information follow the link to our NLFF page, read about what we do and become a member.

Why Buy Local?

The food is delicious.
Spending your money where you live keeps your community thriving.
North Louisiana is particularly blessed with a booming community of small farms and food producers.
Locally-grown food obviously does not cause as much pollution due to less travel time.
Keeping family farms alive keeps rural landscape alive, supporting less sprawl.
As a tourist looking for local flavor makes your visit more authentic. Folks don't travel to Italy looking for a good burrito. If you come to Ruston, taste what we grow.

And if all of this is not reason enough, think of the health and safety of you and your family. Small, local farms are less likely to use hormones and more likely to raise grass fed or free-range animals and organically or naturally grown vegetables.

If you know your farmer, you know where to ask questions; the shorter the route from the farm to your table (at home or in a restaurant), the more knowledge you have at hand and the more flavor you have on your plate.

A very special thanks to our Friends of the Market. Please take a moment to go to our Contact page and note our sponsors.

Where We Are Located

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This Week at the Market

THIS WEEK, JULY 12, AT THE MARKET:

Joywalk Daylily Gardens & Produce - Tomatoes, squash, new potatoes, home-ground corn meal, gluten-free fresh rice flour, cane syrup, farm fresh eggs, daylilies, crab apple jelly, peach/plum jelly, tea cakes, peach salsa, green tomato pickles

Renner Gardens & Produce - Purple hull peas (unshelled), summer squash (patty pan, Magda, zucchini, cocozelle, crookneck), winter squash (delicata, acorn, butternut, gold nugget), melons, onions, garlic, celery, fresh cut flowers, pickles & relishes

Mack's Tomatoes & Produce & Produce - Tomatoes, cantaloupe, eggplant, new potatoes, squash, zucchini, assorted peppers, a wide variety of jams, jellies, relishes, salsas, and more

Wayne's Specialty Produce - Cucumbers (Chinese, Marketmore, and Pickling), Snap Beans (Maxibel (Green) and Rocdor (Yellow)), Cherry Tomatoes (Chocolate, Golden Gem and Volunteer) and Zucchini

Foster Pond Farm - Heirloom stick up pea and heirloom Dixie speckle butter pea bean, tomatoes, snap beans, cantaloupe, squash

Rust & Wood - Handcrafted art and yard items, homemade soaps

Kountry Kreations Blueberries - Freshly picked blueberries, frozen blueberries

Homestead Hill Blueberries - Fresh picked blueberries

Jarrell's Specialty Foods - Special selection of cakes and pies, frozen casseroles: Chicken Vermicelli, Ritzy Chicken, Chicken and Rice, King Ranch Chicken, Enchiladas in flour or corn tortillas, Beef Lasagna, Ground Beef Casserole, and Veggie Lasagna; muffins and breads: carrot/walnut, Morning Glory, blueberry, lemon poppy seed, chocolate chip, banana/walnut, Splenda raisin bran, zuchinni; cakes: assorted large and small cakes; assorted pies; Jarrell's Famous Chicken Salad, and old-fashioned tea cakes

Jennings' Apiaries - Honey, chunk honey, sunblock, honey butter, ginger infused honey

Sadler's Produce - Freshly harvested garlic

Thompson's Farm & Peaches - Peaches, watermelons, crab apple jelly, peach jam, sugar free peach jam

Yak's Produce - Squash, cucumbers, peaches, pink eye purple hull peas, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, lady peas maybe, plums

Albritton's Natural Eggs - Fresh yard eggs by the dozen

Wildthang Custom Meats - Frozen and ready-cooked elk, bison, & pork sausages, bison/bacon burgers, jalapeno poppers, barbeque sauce, and more

Special: Taste of Summer Festival -- come taste the bounty of the summer season! The Back Forty Band -- music from 9:00 to noon. Kitchen Demo -- summer vegetable soup. North Central Louisiana Arts Council (NCLAC) from 8:30 to 11:30 -- art activities for the kids.

Calendar of upcoming events:

1st Saturday of every month: Kids' Days - We open up the market to your kids. We'll provide the tent for them to experience what it's like to be a farmers market vendor. Sell veggies from their gardens or crafts they've made. All we ask is that you stay and supervise.

2nd Saturday of every month: Demonstration Kitchen - Come watch local cooks and chefs prepare easy, healthy recipes using items found at the market. Then taste it for yourselves!

3rd Saturday of every month: Healthy Lifestyles - Yoga classes: Senior class from 8:00 to 8:45, Vinyasa Flow from 9:00 to 9:45. Chair massages by Johnson Sports Massage.

Watch for music and more!

FYI - Tech Farms and Rosemary's Kitchen now carry local pasteurized but non-homogenized milk from Flowing Hills Creamery in Belmont, Louisiana. Their cows are not treated with rBST.

Interested in becoming a vendor or volunteer for the 2014 season of the Ruston Farmers Market? Contact Jean McWeeney at 318-255-9175 or email us at info@rustonfarmersmarket.org. We are specifically looking for musicians, cooks and chefs to run our kitchen demos, and interns to create photo and recipe databases.