Plans are coming together to host a Downtown Glenwood Farmers Market each Saturday beginning May 23 and continuing through the summer. They will be held on N. 2nd Street between E. Broadway and Lake streets from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

At least 20 vendors have signed up so far, organizers say, and there is space for more. The event will also feature food trucks, live music and activities for kids. Volunteers are being recruited to help coordinate everything.

This will be the first year for the city to host a farmers market and Kayla Hartsfield, president of the Glenwood Downtown Network, hopes it becomes an annual tradition.

“We have known for many years that a farmer’s market in Glenwood was a need in the community, it was really just a matter of logistics and having the right people to partner with to host the event, as well as run it,” she said.

Effie O’Neal of Araminda Farms will be running the market. She grew up in Glenwood, where she learned the joy of gardening from her grandmother Irene Vaughn.

“As a young child, she would take me down to the garden and she’d have her apron with her salt shaker in the pocket,” O’Neal said. “She’d go down, pick a tomato, take a bite of it, throw some salt on it, and the juice, you know, running down her chin. And my dad, his name was Roy O’Neal, he was an avid gardener as well. So, I grew up just with a lot of fond memories.”

Effie O’Neal eventually moved to Colorado where stayed for 20 years and shared her love of gardening with neighbors.

“I convinced everyone in my cul-de-sac that they needed to let me garden in their backyards, and we would share the harvest,” she said.

O’Neal grew enough that she started selling some of it at “all these beautiful, amazing farmers markets” in the Boulder, Colorado-area. “So when I returned five years ago to Glenwood, I was like, we need a farmer’s market here,” she said. “Its just been on my heart so local farmers and vendors and crafters and bakers could come and bring their product, but also that sense of community, coming together. It’s just been really exciting that it’s actually happening.”

In recent years, O’Neal has been selling her tomatoes at farmers markets in Hot Springs and calls the experiences “so much fun.”

“You have the customers that you see each week and they start to tell you their story about maybe a grandchild or an event, and you get that real sense of community, whether it’s someone that you just met as a customer or watching community members come together and reconnect,” she said.

A meeting regarding the Downtown Glenwood Farmers Market was held on April 19 at Mercantile on Broadway for musicians who are interested in volunteering to perform live. Nine people attended, Hartsfield said, with many bringing and playing their guitars. In an interview afterward, she said she was very pleased with “the excitement from everyone and the quality of talent.”

O’Neal said she was equally impressed.

“We have these awesome musicians that are going to volunteer their time,” O’Neal said. “Hopefully the tip jar will be overflowing for them.”

The next meeting will be for vendors on Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. at 200 E. Broadway, next to where the farmers market will be held. A subsequent meeting will be for volunteers on May 9, 2 p.m. at Mercantile on Broadway, 209 E. Broadway.

Anyone who is interested in learning more or wants to get involved can email organizers at glenwoodarfarmersmarket@gmail.com.