The first meeting to expand this year’s Farmers Market brought in a number of potentially new vendors for the season and an earlier starting date.

“We must have had 12 to 15 producers,” Carol Allen of Ironton alive, the civic organization focusing on creating a market with a larger selection of wares.

“We really want to increase the number of people who are going to be bringing items to the market,” Allen said. “We are trying to build a greater foot traffic for those who will be selling.”

The market expects to have a soft opening with a limited number of items including flowers and baskets on April 27 at its venue at the corner of Vernon and South Second streets.

The official opening is planned for June 1, as more traditional items, such as produce, will be offered.

“We are going to have entertainment for the morning” she said. “And there is going to be a second celebration the last week of June or the first Saturday after the Fourth (of July) where we will be celebrating our local producers who will now start having some fresh Lawrence County products, the mainstay of what we are doing.”

To enable buyers to the market to know exactly the origin of the produce they are buying items that are grown in a county contiguous to Lawrence will be marked locally grown while produce grown in the county will be marked homegrown.