Farmers market season continues as markets in Coralville and Cedar Rapids open this week. On Wednesday, the Coralville Farmers Market opens for its 2024 season, and then on Thursday and Saturday, two annual farmers markets in Cedar Rapids return.
The two-hour Coralville Farmers Market will be held each Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., starting on May 22 and running through Oct. 2, at the True North Plaza parking lot at the GreenState Family Fieldhouse (801 E 2nd Ave). Organizers promise “fresh, locally grown produce, homemade baked goods, farm fresh eggs, local honey, locally raised meats, beautiful arts & crafts, live music” and other family-friendly features.
The Coralville Farmers Market is still accepting vendor applications. “This year, vendors have the option to purchase spots on individual dates or buy a season pass,” according to a news release from the market.
On Thursday, the Cultivate Hope Farmers Market in Cedar Rapids begins its 2024 season. This Cedar Rapids market is a project of Matthew 25 and features produce from nonprofit’s Cultivate Hope Urban Farm, located in the Time Check Neighborhood. All the produce is grown without pesticides.
Matthew 25 takes its name from a biblical passage in which Christ stressed the importance of helping those in need and was founded in 2006 to “help strengthen and elevate neighborhoods on the west side of Cedar Rapids,” its website explains.
In 2012, the nonprofit created Cultivate Hope Urban Farm, the state’s first urban farm. The farmers market started six years later. The market is located at the farm (437 G Ave, NW), and people coming to the Thursday market session have the opportunity to look around the farm.
Thursday’s market session will be one of Cultivate Hope’s Mega Markets. In addition to the regular produce and pizzas from the market’s brick oven, the Mega Markets feature live music, “kids activities and a natural playground.” More Mega Markets will be held on the Thursday of the month through Sept. 26.
The Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market, the city’s biggest and oldest farmers market, opens its 19th season on Saturday morning. The market will feature more than 200 vendors, with stall running from Second to Fourth Ave, between Second and Fifth St SE. The market will be open on Saturday from 7:30 to noon, rain or shine. There will be seven more Saturday sessions this year — June 1, June 15, July 6, July 20, Aug. 3, Aug. 17 and Sept. 21 — as well as the annual Market After Dark on Aug. 24.
One more farmers market in Cedar Rapids will open during the first week of June. The Noelridge Farmers Market will hold weekly two-hour sessions starting at 4 p.m. every Wednesday from June 5 through Sept. 24. This year, the market has moved to Bever Park, near the entrance to Old MacDonald’s Farm (2700 Bever Ave SE).
