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My vision was to put on a full farmer’s market but on a smaller scale of course. My goals – kid-focused fun, sustainable, cost-effective, and to support local farmers. We rented crates and baskets from Bloomsbury Farms, a local farm (where Mad and I got married) and all the fruit and veggies were mostly sourced from local farmers, with a mix of some produce from Costco.  We had fruit baskets full of oranges, mangoes, lemons, peaches, apples, and of course strawberries!! For vegetables we had lettuce, zucchini, onions, corn, okra, carrots, radishes,  tomatoes, and beets.  Mad and our super kind neighbor, Jeff helped build the small fruit and veggie stand that we displayed everything on. It was easy and inexpensive to assemble. They used the crates to measure for the dimensions of the stand, and used wood from Home Depot. Jeff painted it dark green with dry brush paint strokes to make it look worn. Here are similar building plans that can be adjusted for whatever design you need. Biggest tip here: keep it low to the ground and wide so multiple kiddos can “shop the market” at the same time. The kids had a blast, plus produce baskets made for great (and healthy) party favors! 

For the party craft we had a “planting station” where the kiddos could plant seeds in small, 4 inch, terracotta pots to take home and grow. We had seed packets displayed in a wheelbarrow full of soil. The kids used shovels to add soil into their personalized planters and got to pick their seeds to plant. They had so much fun and with 27 kiddos digging into soil, it was surprisingly less messy than we thought it would be! Such a fun, easy and really low-cost activity! 

I kept the party colors to neutral, earthy tones because the array of fruits and veggies were SO colorful! We had an amazing blush pink bounce house and ball pit from The Vlanca House Nashville, which were both a huge hit!  Magari Events added some beautiful balloon cascades to the tent and bounce house which tied the colors in well and added a festive detail to the day.



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