The De Soto Farmers Market’s 10th annual Farm to Table Dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, in the market pavilion, 520 N. Main St.
Tickets purchased before Aug. 30 cost $40 a person or $300 for a table of eight. Tickets purchased after Aug. 30 are $45. For tickets, visit zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2025-farm-to-table-dinner.
The four-course meal will be made with food produced locally by the market vendors. The menu includes a spring mix salad and a charcuterie board featuring pickled veggies, shiso pesto, mozzarella balls, fruit jam, honey, bacon, sourdough bread, homemade crackers and a wine tasting.
The main course will feature smoked, shredded beef with homemade barbecue sauce and an oyster mushroom sauce; roasted rainbow vegetables; and parmesan potato wedges. A wine tasting will also be included.
The dessert will feature sourdough cookies, gluten-free pumpkin cookies, cupcakes, cake pops and assorted sweet treats.
Ice water and lavender lemonade will be served, and a cash bar will be provided by Kozzy’s on Main next door at 516 N. Main St.
Cara Ahern, assistant market manager, said the event will also include live music by Emery Besher of Hillsboro, who often plays at the De Soto Farmers Market, a gift card prize wheel, silent auction and door prizes. A photo op that goes along with the theme of the evening, “Fall in the Fairy Garden,” will be included, too.
“The photographer and door prizes are new this year,” Ahern said.
She said the Farm to Table dinner is a source of pride for her and the Farmers Market employees and vendors, who spend a lot of effort making sure to showcase as many vendors’ products as possible, from the baked goods to the decorations.
The De Soto Farmers Market is a local-only market, meaning anything at the market must be produced, made or “value-added” within 75 miles of De Soto.
Ahern said the De Soto Farmers Market is funded by donations and fundraisers. The Farm to Table is one of the market’s bigger annual fundraisers.
“We also do a Christmas Home Tour every other year and a trivia night every year,” Ahern said, adding that the Christmas Home Tour will be Dec. 6.
She said the Farm to Table Dinner helps pay for staff, utilities and the market’s programs, including the community garden the market hopes to build next spring.
Leader readers picked the De Soto Farmers Market as the Best Farmers Market this year. Last summer, the De Soto Farmers Market was named the best in Missouri by American Farmland Trust, as part of the national organization’s American Farmers Market Celebration.
Each year, American Farmland Trust’s people’s choice contest asks people to email votes for their favorite market. Last year, the De Soto Farmers Market received 723 votes.
This year’s contest is underway through Sept. 30, and Ahern and market manager Morgan Sitkowski are hoping for even more votes so they can take home a Regional Choice award.
“We’d love to win regional this year,” Ahern said. “The prize is a little bigger, but mostly (for) the bragging rights.”
To vote for the De Soto Farmers Market, visit markets.farmland.org/markets/301499.