JOHN MESSER (REPORTER):Any visit to Kirkwood, Missouri wouldn’t be complete without a trip through the historic downtown district. And if you’re headed there between April and December, the Kirkwood Farmer’s Market is sure to catch your eye. Originally opening as part of the 1976 USA Bicentennial celebration, the market is located right next to city hall and the train station, and  hosts a slew of businesses. We checked out the 42nd annual opening of the Market, particularly of the main business: Summit Produce.

KATY (MARKET EMPLOYEE): Hi I’m Katy, I work at the Farmer’s Market. Uh I’ve been working here on and off for about five or six years. Uh super cold opening [laughs], hasn’t been too crazy today. So we’re open seven days a week, and um, we work a lot with local farmers selling their products as well as regular grocery store item products but we have a lot of speciality things like jams and honey, local honey. On saturdays, other vendors come in and fill up the rest of the market and they sell different things like homemade breads and chocolates and spices. All around good atmosphere, music during the day on saturdays, hopefully next weekend will be warmer [laughs].

JOHN MESSER (REPORTER): But even though the cold scared off many of the usual customers,

LOCAL #1: I did not wanna be outside last weekend.

JOHN MESSER (REPORTER): ...the community really does care about the historic market.

 MESSER: What do you think about the Farmer’s Market?

LOCAL #2: It’s good. I think it’s a really good like local institution. I like that people can buy fresh food, like, and it’s good to support local businesses and farmers and such.

MESSER: While a handful of customers trickled in and out of the market, it was nothing compared to the usual bustle that opening weekend often brought in.

KATY (MARKET EMPLOYEE): So the opening weekend’s been a little slow just with the weather.  Um, we’re having to put away all our flowers into the greenhouse cause it’s gonna get below freezing tonight, which is unfortunate. But, it should warm up in the next few days.

MESSER: Summit Produce and the rest of the market will be opened seven days a week throughout the rest of the year. They remain optimistic that warmer weather will bring back business, and in the meantime are determined to brave the cold and stay open. This has been John Messer for J2150.

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