As many of you long-time Market goers can attest, this year the Market has reached some sort of critical mass. By every measurement the Market is bursting at the seams. Attendance is way up as is the vendor count. What about the sales numbers, you ask? Well, almost every Sunday this year has been as big, or bigger, than the biggest weeks last year. Even the one rainy Sunday we had this year didn’t slow things down as much as in the past.

 

One glaring piece of evidence to support this is the amount of brunch foods that are being consumed each week. In the past the Market has supported two food vendors (Chef Dale Hawkins of Fish Hawk Acres and the culinary team of the Bridgeport Conference Center) and some weeks one or the other would sell out of a few of their menu items. This year the Market has added a third food vendor to the mix, Chef Cody Thrasher and his food truck, Hash Browns and New Grounds. The result? Cody has sold out of every menu item by 1:00 in the two weeks he has been in attendance. And Chef Dale and the BCC team, owing to a bit more experience in the crowd sizes, are mostly sold out by the closing bell every week.

 

Need further proof? As noted here a few weeks ago the Market added a fourth dining tent which increases the brunch seating to 32 seats. Alas, the first week of the expanded dining area still saw folks sitting in the grassy areas or on a curb to eat. Now, some folks do prefer to dine sitting in the grass under a shade tree but, believe me, many times during the day there are no seats to be had under the dining tents.

 

This week will offer the final proof as the Market will be adding a fourth food vendor to the mix. We’re pleased to welcome Chefs Tim Goots and Pamela Stevens of Mia Margherita to the Market. They’ll be fixing up a unique take on their already famous Coal-Fired Oven Pizza. Using a portable, gas-fired rotating pizza oven they will be churning out personal size versions of their pies. This week’s choices will be their classic Margherita pie and a Chicken Shiitake Pesto Pizza featuring the Market’s own Gardner Farms chicken.

 

In fact, all of the food vendors feature products from a wide selection of the Market’s vendors. While it’s somewhat of a requirement in order to be able to setup a food stand at the Market, I am pretty sure that all of these chefs would be using local products whether they had to or not. They want their customers to eat the freshest, most flavorful food available after all.

 

And it’s not just the savory foods that are selling out quick every week. Case in point, our new cupcake vendor, My Little Cupcake, can’t make them fast enough. While I won’t give away her numbers let’s just say that Kaycee sells multiple hundreds of cupcakes every Sunday and is usually sold out by 12:30. Bridgeport has quite the sweet tooth!

 

So, judging by the first eight weeks of this year’s Market season, my recommendation today is this. If you want to eat the best food and get a good seat at the table you better get there early!

 

And don’t forget to stop by the music tent and leave a small token of your appreciation in guitarist Rus Reppert’s tip basket. Rus has even been known to get the odd vegetable or cupcake thrown in his basket!

 

Until next week, Stay Fresh!

 

The Bridgeport Farmers Market Association is the seven member all volunteer board of directors that governs the Bridgeport Farmers Market. It is supported by a wonderful group of community volunteers who help in the setup and maintenance of the market. For more information on the Farmers Market or to see how you can help please e-mail us at bridgeportfarmersmarket@yahoo.comor, better yet, LIKE us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. You can also check out the Market’s own YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BridgeportFarmersMktor for more BFM video content you can now go to http://vimeo.com/bridgeportfarmersmarket/videos