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    • The Oak Park restaurant plans to offer a farmers market in Des Moines in 2025
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    The Oak Park restaurant plans to offer a farmers market in Des Moines in 2025

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    It’s a September afternoon, with the sun turning a golden color at 5 p.m., even as temperatures remain in the high 80s. This Monday, Des Moines’ north Grand neighborhood is bustling with activity at the Oak Park restaurant, which is normally closed. The parking lot is bustling with vendors and buyers participating in the restaurant’s first farmers market.

    This is not your average farmers market with a collection of crafts, produce and food vendors. Eleven months after the restaurant opened, owner Kathy Fehrman and her team introduced their own vendors, who make the restaurant’s menu so successful.

    “This was all about the vendors and getting them noticed for what they do,” Fehrman said.

    Outside Oak Park’s front doors, employees sold cereal and other restaurant treats. Farmers like Jordan Clasen of Grade A Gardens in Earlham and Jenny Quiner of Dogpatch Urban Gardens in Des Moines offer dressings, turnips, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, turnips, squash and radishes.

    Pine Grove Family Farm in Bondurant, where pigs were raised that are now served in Oak Park dishes, ate restaurant scraps and brought meat with them: beef, pork, lamb, chicken and even eggs.

    More: Kitchen scraps from Oak Park feed pigs, which are now on the restaurant’s menu

    Iowa WildCraft Urban Farm in Beaverdale offered cucumbers, eggplants and shishito peppers, while Preston Honey in the Brown’s Woods area of ​​Des Moines has 55 hives producing honey in its fourth year.

    An edible prairie at the front of the property, created and planted by gardener Kelly Norris, produces new native plants for use in the kitchen and behind the bar.

    More: Oak Park is planning a harvestable prairie that will open next door to Prairie Style restaurant

    One of Oak Park’s newest suppliers, the Iowa Food Cooperative, helps the restaurant source a range of products from across the state, from spices and dried herbs to local produce, jams and honey.

    “These are the guys we see carrying food in the back door,” said Billy Dohrmann, Oak Park’s operations manager, who also tends the restaurant’s garden. This is the second year the restaurant has used the garden to add radishes and lettuce, carrots and more to the menu. In the morning, passers-by can often see chefs using baskets to collect products that they will use in the restaurant that evening.

    Next year, expect the farmers market to return to a monthly basis, Fehrman said.

    Some of the other vendors at the Oak Park Farmers Market

    Hayes Farm in Storm Lake

    Crooked Gap Farm in Knoxville

    Red Dragon Herbs and Tea in Polk City

    FarmBaby in Lucas

    The Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand, which sponsored the event

    Where to Find Oak Park

    Location: 3901 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines

    Contact: 515-620-2185 or oakparkdsm.com

    Hours: Open Tuesday to Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m

    Reservations: Exploretock.com.

    Susan Stapleton is entertainment editor and restaurant reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitteror Instagram, or message her at [email protected].

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    Eira Gwyneth
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