The first Argenta Foodie Fest is tomorrow (Saturday 9 am to 2 pm), and they are expecting a great turnout of Central Arkansas' finest chefs and farmers. So far, they are expecting 16 local chefs (including the chef from Ashleys), paired with over 24 local farmers, 3 bands, and a dozen or more artists and craftsmen. The market will stay open until 2 p.m for this special event. There will be activities for kids, a misting tent, fire engines, and more. So, come early and stay late. Admission is free!

Some of the foods (all with local ingredients from our state's farmers) being served by chefs will include: 3 BBQ vendors, roasted corn on the cob, Greek style pulled goat gyros, vegetarian rice and spring rolls, live crawfish boil with corn and new potatoes, beefalo hamburgers, purple hull peas and cornbread, chicken & andouille sausage gumbo, Arkansas tomato & green onion quiche; sushi, corn esquites, Arkansas basmati rice horchata, peach smoothies, fried fruit pies, boudin, peach short cake, smoked pheasant and Andouille sausage gumbo, watermelon granitas, and many more cold drink specialties. Wow! The chefs will open their booths at 9 a.m., and many will offer take home portions. Also, several will have gourmet quality BBQ sauces for your home BBQ needs.

Be first to comment this article

Here is the report from Jody Hardin with the Certified Arkansas Farmers Market in Argenta.  Jody reports on what we can expect at the Market tomorrow at the correr of 6th & Main Streets in downtown North Little Rock.  The maket hours will be extended intill 2:00 pm this Staturday to coincide with Foodie Fest.

Peaches- I jumped the gun on peaches last weekend, by saying that the freestone Topaz variety would hit the market.  They didn't, and I paid for it.  Some sweet little lady got her feathers ruffled over that, and I just wanted to make this small disclaimer about my forecasting efforts.  Folks, mother nature has a way of making even the best market forecasters look bad, and I'm just a beginner.  This weekend, we will see the Red Reliance variety, which I consider a semi-freestone peach.  I have a sample in the Argenta Market Kitchen, and they are finally getting good.  Up until now, peaches have been very mediocre.

Tomatoes- I had my first delicious tomato last week.  There should be more volume this weekend, and you  may be able to find a few heirloom tomatoes if you come early. Several varieties of cherry and grape tomatoes are also available this weekend.

Click on Read More to see all the great vegetables, beef, herbs and dairy produsts that will also be available.

Be first to comment this article

Argenta Downtown Council and Certified Arkansas Farmers Market invite you to share your patriotic spirit and love of locally grown foods by attending the first annual Argenta Foodie Festival on Saturday, July 4, 2009.  The event will take place from 9:00am - 2:00pm and is free to the public. 

This new mouth-watering festival will be held along Main Street between 6th St. and 7th St. in the historic Argenta neighborhood of downtown North Little Rock next to the popular Argenta Farmers Market.  The Argenta Foodie Festival will feature some of Arkansas’ favorite restaurants and catering companies as their chefs will create their own specialties utilizing only locally grown produce and meats.  Entertainment includes live music, arts and crafts vendors, a children’s entertainment area and shop for fresh, locally grown food at the Farmers Market. 

Don’t miss out on all of the fun on Independence Day!  Come downtown to wear your red, white and blue, enjoy great food, dance to live music and support our local farmers.  Our local farmers, chefs, musicians and artist will make downtown North Little Rock the place to be on July 4, 2009. 

Click on Read More for Foodie Fest details
 

Be first to comment this article

The Arkansas Traveler's will hold the first 4th of July fireworks show tonight after the baseball game at Dickey-Stephens.  That means we should see a pretty good fireworks show from our yards here in Argenta sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 pm, depending on if the game goes into extra innings. 

So don't be surprised by the load booms and bright lights in the sky tomorrow night.

Be first to comment this article

The North Little Rock Police Department wants to remind the community that the discharge, possession, or manufacturing of fireworks inside the city limits of NLR is illegal.  Anyone found to be in possession of fireworks will immediately have them confiscated and may be subject to arrest and prosecution. 

The NLRPD wants you to have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July.
 

Be first to comment this article

The Argenta Branch Library will be closed today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) for the 4th of July holiday.  The library will re-open on Monday at 10:00 am

Be first to comment this article

North Little Rock City fffices will be closed Friday, July 3rd, 2009,in observance of Independence Day (July 4th), Garbage, trash and recycling routes will still be picked up as scheduled on Friday (there will not be a delay due to this holiday.)
 

Be first to comment this article

The name change is underway and soon there will be no more evidence of the Alltel Arena name.  Verizon Arene is here!!

Comments (3)

Thanks to all the people who come to Argenta News for thier local news and information about what is happening downtown. We have set all time records in unique visitors, total visits, pages viewed and hits for the month of June. The following are the record Argenta News numbers for June.

• Unique Visitors - 3,913 which represents an increase of over 60% since I rededicated myself back to Argenta News in January 2009. This is also reportedly more than the paid readership of the NLR Times
• Total Visits - over 13.900 total people visited Argenta News with a 50% increase since January
• Page Views - over 66,460 page views with a 160% increase since January
• Hits - over 515,000 hits to Argenta News with a 60% increase since January

The average visitor to Argenta News spends over six minutes on Argenta News reading an average of four different pages per visit. These numbers have taken out all the visits by bots, spiders and search engines. No doubt, Argenta News is one oif the most popular neighborhood web sites in the State

Be first to comment this article

President Becy Ragsdale has cancelled the regular July meeting of the Argenta Neighborhood Boosters scheduled for tonight at 6:30 pm.  The meeting was cancelled due to the conflict with the 4th of July holiday and high number of people travelling for the holiday.

Be first to comment this article