Kingfield Farmers’ Market Celebrates 25 years

A Sunday morning at the Kingfield Farmers’ Market builds like birdsong at dawn. At first light, there's only the soft hum of an engine or two, the gentle squeaking of canopies unfolding and boxes being shuffled from truck bed to tabletop. Then comes the murmur of voices, vendors greeting one another or asking the market manager where to set up for the day. 

By 8:30 am, the park blooms with noise as the neighborhood arrives. Friends chat over coffee and fresh-baked pastries. Kiddos dance to the beat of live music. Parents debate the merits of different veggies for weekly meal prep. Novice growers and green thumbs alike swap advice with the Master Gardeners. For 25 years, this has been the soundtrack to Sunday mornings in the Kingfield neighborhood - but it hasn't always looked like this.

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The Kingfield Farmers’ Market started quietly. In 1998, the Kingfield neighborhood tried to open a community co-op, but the idea wilted before it could really take root. Don Roberts and Joni Cash had a different dream for their community. They wanted to provide their neighborhood with fresh, seasonal produce grown on their own organic farm in Wisconsin. In the summer of 2000, Roberts and Cash grew enough crops to sell. They sold produce out of their truck in the parking lot behind Anodyne Cafe, managed by Theresa Cook. At the end of the year, they met with the Kingfield Neighborhood Association and neighbors. A plan was hatched for a real farmers’ market to launch the following spring, and in 2001, the Kingfield Farmers’ Market was born.

The market’s early years were marked by movement and growth. Run by volunteer market manager Maura Bosch, the market moved locations three times to make space for its ever-increasing vendor roster. It also operated year-round. Bosch recalls how, during bitterly cold Minnesota winters, she would have to run the block home to fetch warm pens for writing checks - they kept freezing in her pocket!

During these early years, several familiar faces joined the market: vendors Peter’s Pumpkins and Carmen’s Corn (2002), Davidson’s Farm (2003), and Bogart’s Doughnut Co. (early 2000s). By 2008, the Kingfield Farmers’ Market welcomed 20 vendors and 800 shoppers every week, and became an independent 501(c)(4) nonprofit. The market was named City Pages Best Farmers’ Market in 2012, after increasing its social and environmental impact by committing to a zero waste model and moving to accept SNAP-EBT and credit cards. 

The following year, the nonprofit took on the name Neighborhood Roots under the leadership of board chair David Brauer. By the late 2010s, the Kingfield Farmers’ Market was well established at 4310 Nicollet Ave, with 31 vendors and 1,500 weekly visitors. It had become a mentor-market for several other markets in the area, including the Fulton (now Southwest) and Nokomis markets, which are still managed by Neighborhood Roots today. 

Then the rhythm changed in 2020. Like so many community institutions, the market faced a period of upheaval. It moved twice during the first year of the pandemic, leadership changed, and non-essential programs were paused.

But vendors still showed up, masked and socially distanced. And the community did, too. Together, they carried the market through one of the most challenging chapters in its history. The Kingfield Farmers' Market persevered, supported by a community that knows what it means to weather a long, hard winter while holding onto the promise of spring. In 2021, the market found its current home at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. In the following years, the Neighborhood Roots board grew, and hired year-round staff members Erica Lanning and Mara Wack. By 2024, market attendance surpassed pre-pandemic numbers. 

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Looking back, it’s certain that the neighborhood shaped the market - but the market has shaped the neighborhood, too. Bosch recalls how the blocks around Nicollet and 43rd Street, where the market first took place, used to feel boring, even depressed. But through the creative energy of Kingfield Farmers’ Market and Anodyne Cafe, the place was transformed. Eat Street extended south. The area became a community hub. Even Sebastian Joe’s iconic ice cream flavor, Nicollet Pothole, came about as part of the movement. 

Now, Kingfield’s 25th season has so much to celebrate: Over 150 households support this work through the Sustaining Market Membership Program. The staff team continues to grow, welcoming a third year-round staff member. The market has raised over $4,000 (so far!) in community-powered funds to support food access for low-income neighbors. 

For over 600 Sundays, the Kingfield Farmers’ Market has buzzed each week like a garden: alive with the joy of a community built on care for one another, a love for great food, and respect for the land that sustains us. Here’s to many, many more market days to come.