The market will be open on April 22, 2017 from 8-12. We’ve had to cancel the annual tractor parade due to the weather. However, the market doesn’t have any empty vendor spaces for tomorrow, so we’ll be there rain or shine!
2016 Tractor Parade
The Annual Tractor Parade begins at 10:30 AM on April 30th. It will run along Main Street starting on the north end at Mahn’s and going south to St. Louis Street.
We’ll be giving out market information and seeds, so be sure to snag anyone dressed in ridiculous vegetable costumes…you know the ones.
An application to enter the parade is here or you can pick one up at the public library.
Even more good news: the farmers’ market will be OPEN AT THE NEW LOCATION from 9AM-1PM the day of the parade. Those aren’t our normal hours (8-12), but we’ve made an adjustment for the parade and other events in town that morning (DeSoto Dash for Dystrophy).
We hope to see you there.
2015 Tractor Parade
Photos from the Tractor Parade!
Thank you to everyone who participated and helped.
Busy Weekend
There are several things happening this weekend in DeSoto, and they all line up nicely without too much overlap. Here’s your line-up:
If you’re lucky enough to swing an invite, you can attend the 2nd Annual DeSoto Fine Artisan Exhibition awards Friday night from 6-8 PM. For the rest of us, there’s the general admission time, but we’ll get to that.
Saturday morning, there’s the Desoto Farmers’ Market Highly-Anticipated, Much-Loved, Yes,-We-Parade-with-Little-Leaguers-and-Like-It, Tractor Parade at 10 AM. You can watch the parade anywhere along Main St. between Mahn’s Funeral Home and St. Louis St.
The market will open after that with plant sales from 11AM until 2PM at their regular location behind St. Andrew’s UMC on Rock Rd, so you can catch a few of the Little League Teams in the parade while the market vendors get set-up. They’ll welcome you with bedding plants, baked goods, and some craft items. If you’re looking to get some broccoli plants, this might be your shot.
Now, back to that 2nd Annual DeSoto Fine Artisan Exhibition. General admission is $2 and runs from noon until 5PM on Saturday and Sunday. It is at the DeSoto Community Center, and you might recognize some market vendors’ work there. Be on the lookout for baskets, iron-work, etc.
That gets you through Saturday, so on to Sunday. You can visit the Franciscan Sisters out west of town on Sunday afternoon. Just west of De Soto, the Sisters have 40 lovely acres and you are welcome this Sunday to take a hike down to the pond, tour the organic garden and enjoy either or both awesome gardening talks.
At 3:00, Joe Bean (local Master Gardener & the fellow behind the amazing De Soto Community Herb Garden) will give the talk Herbs How To. Joe’s a great guy and you won’t want to miss his presentation! Bring along your herb growing questions. At 4:00, Maurice will present Organic Vegetable Gardening 101. He’ll speak about his love for organic gardens and the various St. Louis-area gardening projects he has begun over the years as well examine basic organic techniques. The celebration gets started anytime after noon on Sunday, so feel free to come and enjoy a lovely late-April Sunday afternoon and relax at the Franciscan Sisters’ place! They’ll also have lots of Sister-sown heirloom tomato, eggplant and pepper plants available for donation.
(Directions to the Fransiscan Sisters place on Peter Moore: In De Soto just head out west on “H” Highway beginning at Walgreens and go a little more than a mile till you get to a curve in the road and Peter Moore Lane will be on your right. Turn there onto Peter Moore and keep an eye to the right. Very soon you’ll see the Franciscan Sisters’ sign in their hay field on the right. Turn off there and follow the yellow ribbons through the field and park on their lawn. Rain forecasts being what they are, be prepared to walk and potentially drive through some muck.)
That will cap off a lovely weekend, and of course you’ll need places to eat, and there are several in DeSoto. Of course, we’re partial to Pogolino’s because they sponsor the Farmers’ Market!
Tractor Parade Information
The Tractor Parade will be April 25, 2015. It will be at 10:00 AM, and if you plan on bringing your tractor, you need to get there by 9:30 AM to line up. The Little League will be co-opting our parade, and we love having them. For this reason, if you’re planning on bringing a horse or other livestock, you’ll need to line-up behind the teams and bring appropriate tools for street clean-up. (As unpleasant as that is to consider while typing, I can only imagine how unpleasant the actual “clean-up” will be.)
Lineup will be on Frederica by Mahn’s Funeral Home. The route be south along Main St. and will stop at the Culwell Stadium at the De Soto School where all vendors should proceed back to St. Andrew’s to be ready for Market immediately following the parade. In order to participate in the parade, entries must be decorated and advertise the De Soto Farmers’ Market. Your business or product for the Farmers’ Market may also be part of your entry. Select the link below to access the entry form.
DFM Tractor Parade Applicaiton 2014
We are thankful for Pat Matheny who has agreed to organize our festive parade. We’ll begin selling plants at the market (and possibly other goods too) as soon as vendors have a chance to get to the market! We’re hopeful this will be around 11:00 AM. We hope to see you at the parade and at the market! I’ll be walking around handing out goodies, so be sure to flag me down.
