Outdoor Markets: Widgeonwood in the Village

For the past several years, Sally and David Calvin of Widgeonwood Farm in Columbia, Missouri have been the hosts of a French-style outdoor market, Marche du Jour (translation: market of the day) held in the courtyard of a brick building at 75th and Delaware. This season the Calvins have taken up residence in a new location: in the enclosed courtyard under the clock tower in the Prairie Village Shopping Center, 71st and Mission Road.

The Marche du Jour name is out. The Calvins now call their Saturday-only market (which opens at 8 a.m. and closes in the early afternoon or when they sell out of most of their products) “Widgeonwood in the Village.”

“The parking is easier, there’s no problem if it rains, we have a lot more room to display more things,” Sally told me a couple of weeks ago, when I stopped by to see her and eat some of the free samples she put out: bits of chocolate-covered coconut bonbons, chocolate-covered toffee, chocolate espresso cake. Yes, I bought a few things too. It’s hard to pass up Calvin’s home-made pickles, mustards, dressings, salsas (the hot cherry salsa is delicious poured over a homemade meatloaf right before it goes into the oven) and the fresh produce brought in from the Widgeonwood Farm.

Tomorrow the Calvins are showcasing fresh rhubarb, pies, focaccia, French baguettes, caramel rolls, multi-grain herb croutons, salad greens, radishes and ice-cold gazpacho soup and all the other things they neatly arrange on little tables. It’s not quite like shopping in one of the neighborhood outdoor markets in Paris — but almost.