Bentonville Farmer's Market: Great Food Starts Here.

If there's one thing that Drew and I do most weekends, it's to visit the Bentonville Farmer's Market at the downtown square. It's one of my very favorite things about Northwest Arkansas. The people watching is spectacular, the music makes you tap your feet, and all of the fresh food is mouth watering good.This weekend was no exception to our little Saturday tradition, so we packed up the boys and headed out.

 Brayden was excited to hold my bag before we left ;)

I got this bag before burlap was popular. It was perfect for holding our produce purchases, and I looked hip and chic using it. At least I think I did. ha!

Their motto is "great food starts here." I'd have to agree, since anything we've ever gotten at the farmers market has been amazing. A lot of people think that a farmer's market is just food, but it's so much more than that. It's culture. It's handmade. It's locally owned and produced. I love it (everything at the Bentonville Farmer's market comes out of Benton county. Can't get more local than that!)

this is my favorite spot to sit during the farmer's market. You can hear the music in the background, along with the hum of the water fountain, and it's smack dab in the shade. Perfection.


I love all of the colors of the produce. I'll be honest... going to the farmer's market makes me a bit sad we didn't do a garden this summer. I feel like these farmers are totally bailing me out of my farm fresh produce withdrawals. They also have meat farmers there too! While we were there on Saturday I saw farmers selling farm fresh beef, pork and chicken.

this is my favorite band that plays on Saturdays. They are ingeniously named "Farmer and the Markets."

There's a lady who sells wood items that are made from reclaimed lumber from salvage from Joplin

Drew's favorite is this stand. This guy's name is Aesa Jarvis, and he handmakes all kinds of wood items. It's amazing to watch. I talked to Aesa's mom on Saturday, and she said that he's been doing this since he was a little boy. He makes some incredible pieces, but my favorite right now has to be this:

I mean, really. I might die from the cuteness.


Another of my favorite woodworkers at the Bentonville farmer's market is Steven Langford. He makes custom furniture, and his frames are so cute! I've also flipped through his portfolio book and he has some of the cutest looking buffets and tables... very pottery barnish. You can find him on facebook: southerntraditionsar

of course, what farmers market is complete without fresh grown flowers?


I had never seen this guy at the farmers market before, but Brayden sure spotted him quickly, and insisted on a black sword. What a fun treat for a sword lovin' boy!

Brayden is normally not a very still child. He literally stood motionless while the balloon artist worked away. Perhaps I should take up balloon artistry as a means to achieve good behavior.


Another added treat this past weekend was that Yarnells was giving away free ice cream, and also have a Tryathlon! Yarnells is an Arkansas company that is making it's way back to our state. Our family LOVES ice cream, and I love that there's now an Arkansas company that I can buy it from!

how cute is this old ice cream truck?!?!


My boys LOVED the ice cream. Brayden had a "no drop left behind" policy.

We brought home a few items from the farmer's market to make this amazing salad, inspired by this Panzanella recipe from the James Beard Foundation.


I made this salad at 10:30pm. We were both tired, but this salad. Oh, this salad. It called our name. There was no way we could let it soak all night without one bite. Which led to another. And another. And another. Yes, we each ate 2 bowls of this right before bed. And it was AMAZING. To quote Drew, "this is like freshness exploding in my mouth!"

To make the salad, you'll simply need:
- grape tomatoes.
- 1 small purple onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
- fresh basil, chopped
- mozzerella, cubed
- red wine vinegar
- olive oil
- sea salt & black pepper

I simply combined all of the vegetables, herbs and cheese. Then I sprinkled with the vinegar and olive oil to taste, and seasoned with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

If you're local (or even if you're not!), I'd love for you to help me out...right now you can vote for the Bentoville Farmer's Market to be America's Favorite Market! I would LOVE it if my farmer's market won! If you'd like to see all of the other pictures I took during this weekend's trip, you can click HERE to view the rest of them. 

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Downtown Bentonville, Inc. All opinions (and photographs) are my own. #bvfoodie #CBias #SocialFabric