What’s a farmer’s favorite Bruce Springsteen song? Born in the USDA! Ok, Ok. All jokes aside, who else loves farmer’s markets? With younger American’s becoming more health-conscious, markets have become pretty trendy! The number of community markets around the USA has doubled in the last decade! So I’d gander that if you’re reading this post, you probably have bought something at a Market. Do you want to know a little secret? Denton has one of the best community markets, if not, dare I say, the BEST outside of Dallas. (Dallas’s Farmer’s Market is just next level. We ain’t gonna compete with that…). If you’re planning on adventuring to different farmer’s markets in the North Texas area, you better write down the Denton Community Market as that number one spot to stop at!
History of the Denton Community Market
The Denton Community Market was founded in 2009, and started having its first markets in April of 2010. When I first moved to Denton in 2019, they were celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the community market with a poster contest. Needless to say, if you walk into my apartment you’ll see two posters of the Denton Community Market hanging up. What can I say, I’m a big fan of the market (why else would I be writing a post). The market is a nonprofit, producer-only farmer’s market and art market that is located off the Square in the Historic Downtown District of Denton. In addition to being located near the square, the backdrop to the Community market is Historic Park, where there are a bunch of old homes ranging from log cabin to the Bayless-Selby House.
The market began as a way to help create a setting that supported the local culture and gave the community access to food grown locally. Additionally, the neat thing about going to the community market is that you get to connect with a lot of small businesses that normally you may not come across on a regular basis. For instance, one of my very close friends is actually running a small business at the farmer’s market where she sells a variety of unique flavors of jams. That is just one example of many small businesses that you can find at a farmer’s market.
Apart from getting fresh food and one-of-a-kind artwork from the market, you can also sit back at a table a listen to a local artist play a set of music. After all, Denton is known for their musicians (Fun fact: Bowling for Soup recorded their second album in Denton!)
Benefits of the Market
Some general benefits of going to shop at the Community Market vs. a typical grocery store include:
- Helps to preserve farmlands
- Stimulates the local economy.
- Increases access to fresh food. SNAP & WIC benefits are both accepted at the Denton Community Market. If you are a customer that utilizes these benefits, just go check out the Denton Community Market information booth, and they will help you get you set up to use your benefits with the vendors.
- Support healthy communities through activities, food, and community.
- Promotes sustainable food practices!
When to visit Denton Community Market
The community market runs from April to the end of November every Saturday from 8 am to 12 pm in the Summer and 9am to 1 pm in the Spring and Fall.
Additionally, there is plenty of free parking around the community market, which is located at the Denton County Historical Park at Carroll Blvd. and Mulberry St. (317 W. Mulberry St. Denton TX 76201).
I hope after reading about our community market, it encourages you to go out and support whatever local market you have access to, or you know you can always drive to the Denton Community Market! Let me know in the comments if there is anything in particular, you like to buy at a farmer’s market! For me, it is bread!
