Corner Market

From a purely visual standpoint, the Farmers Community Market in Brookside (in the parking lot of the Border Star Montessori School at 63rd Street and Wornall) would win points: all those pretty little white canopies in a row, sheltering vendors who are selling local organic vegetables and fruits, fragrant herbs and cut flowers. “When I go there,” says chef and restaurateur Jasper Mirabile Jr., “I find vegetables that I rarely see around Kansas City. And the organizers really listen to what the patrons want.” Visitors to the market, which is set up from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday, also can find hormone- and antiobiotic-free meats, free-range eggs and locally harvested honey. It’s not surprising to see musicians playing guitar while families sit around, nibbling hot breakfast burritos and sipping locally roasted coffee. “It’s very much a neighborhood market,” adds Mirabile (who conducts a cooking demonstration during the market’s Heirloom Tomato Festival July 24). It’s true — kids are in strollers, and people bring their dogs and engage in friendly gossip before the afternoon gets too hot and the vendors pack up for another week.

Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Starts: May 29. Continues through Oct. 2, 2010