The West Little Rock Farmers Market's first season ends on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, with a Harvest Market billed as the last market of the season. The same groups behind it are getting a store ready a few doors away. When it opens, it will sell Arkansas-grown food at Breckenridge Village six days a week. For now, all anyone has announced is "October." That leaves a gap between the last market and the store's first day, and the length of that gap depends on how the fall goes.
Three Saturdays Left on the Calendar
The market started on April 18 and has run every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at 10301 North Rodney Parham Road, the address Breckenridge Village shares with The Root Cafe. After this weekend, here is what remains:
| Date | Hours | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Oct. 17 | 8 a.m. to noon | Music by Buh Jones |
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | 8 a.m. to noon | Music by Amber Violet |
| Saturday, Oct. 31 | 8 a.m. to noon | The Buh Jones Band, Harvest Market and last market of the season |
The season's calendar was more than produce stalls. It included an Earth Day Market in April, a bounce house from Epoch Church in May, a Summer Sizzle Celebration in July, storytime with Sammy's Bookshelf in July and August, and an "Oktemberfest" on Sept. 26. When KARK covered the launch in April, organizers said they expected a rotating weekly lineup of 25 to 35 farmers, with live music, cooking demonstrations, gardening workshops and kids' activities. Porch Swings Farms was one of the growers named.
The organizers have not announced a 2027 schedule. So the Oct. 31 Harvest Market is the last confirmed Saturday market at Breckenridge.
Three Partners Built This Market
Most farmers markets are run by one group. This one has three. The Arkansas Local Food Network runs it with help from St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, and the market's site lists The Root Cafe as a third organizer. Each partner brings something different.
The Arkansas Local Food Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It has supported Arkansas farms through direct marketing since 2007, and its programs include an online market and a Green Groceries partnership. St. Joseph Center of Arkansas also runs the Argenta Market in North Little Rock, open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays. The Root Cafe gives the market a permanent home base, since its West Little Rock location sits in the same Rodney Parham address, in suites C3 and C4.
The Root got there first. The SoMa cafe known for locally sourced cooking began soft-opening its Breckenridge Village location in January 2025, according to Arkansas Times. The same report said the center's revitalization was backed by an ownership group that included The Kelley Group, the Keet family, Dale V. "Bo" Briggs and Nashville-based Bodnar Group. In late 2024, AY Magazine described Kelley Commercial Partners putting together the investor group behind the comeback.
The market's sponsor list shows the same names. St. Joseph Center lists Kelley Property Management, Keet Restaurant Group, The Root Cafe, Simmons Bank, Ben E. Keith and Good Earth Garden Center. The center's owners helped pay for the market as well as host it.
A Farm Store That Exists Because of a Fire
The store is where this story differs from a typical end-of-season notice. St. Joseph Center used to work from a farmstead at the old St. Joseph Orphanage in North Little Rock. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that a fire destroyed it in March 2025. That left the center with growers and products but no permanent place to sell them.
On May 5, 2026, the nonprofit announced a farm store at Breckenridge Village, in the same building as The Root Cafe. It would sell locally grown produce, value-added products and Arkansas-made goods. The announcement called the space a "natural neighborhood fit." It said the center's ownership team invited St. Joseph Center to join its vision of the village as a neighborhood hub, and that the store would carry the same products from the same farmers, just in a new neighborhood.
The store now has a name, the Little Farm Stop, and an address at 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road, Suite C1. Its site describes it as "part farmers market, part grocery store, and entirely Arkansas." It lists produce, frozen meats from Arkansas ranchers, Grade A dairy, eggs, breads, jams, sauces and gifts. The line that sets it apart from the Saturday market:
"Unlike a weekly farmers market, we will be here Tuesday through Sunday."
The store's mission statement gives the numbers behind the model. It says the traditional grocery system pays farmers about 15 cents of every dollar a customer spends, and that the Little Farm Stop pays 70 cents. Those figures are the store's own description of its pricing model. At that split, a farmer gets more than four times as much of each sale as the store says a conventional grocery chain would pay.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Still Pending
As of Oct. 10, 2026, no one has published an opening date. The store's site says "Opening in October!" and already lists weekly hours. It also still carries a returns line about "closing out our location," which doesn't fit a store that hasn't opened yet. Little Rock Soirée listed the store as "Opening Soon" on Sept. 29. On Oct. 4, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said the center "will soon open The Little Farm Stop at Breckenridge Village to offer Arkansas-grown and -made products year-round."
Here is what each piece of reporting supports:
- Confirmed: Saturday markets on Oct. 17, Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, with Oct. 31 billed as the season's last.
- Confirmed: The Little Farm Stop's address, its Tuesday-through-Sunday format and the product range it describes.
- Announced, not confirmed: An opening sometime in October 2026.
- Not announced: A winter market at Breckenridge, a pickup point there, or a 2027 market season.
If the store opens before Oct. 31, Saturday shoppers will have somewhere to go after the market closes. If it opens later, there will be a stretch with no local-food sales at the center. Whether the store's posted hours hold is something the store itself can confirm, by phone at (501) 482-1908 or by email at [email protected].
Buying From the Same Farms in the Meantime
The Arkansas Local Food Network already runs a year-round online option. It works on a weekly cycle. You shop from Sunday at noon through Wednesday at noon, then pick up on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at Christ Episcopal Church, 509 Scott St. downtown. St. Joseph Center has described the network's online market as a "year-round online farmers market." It is run by the same nonprofit that runs the Breckenridge market, though the pickup is downtown rather than off I-430.
The Root Cafe stays open in the meantime. Its West Little Rock page describes locally sourced produce, farm-raised meats, scratch-made meals and baked goods, plus a patio and a bar. St. Joseph Center has also kept up its ties to the restaurant. At the center's 10th annual Lettuce Grow fundraiser on Sept. 11, Root Cafe chef Jonathan Arrington cooked a dinner sourced from local farms for more than 250 guests at Sherwood Forest Event Center.
A Shopping Center Rebuilt Around Local Food
The farmers market, the farm store and the restaurant are each new to Breckenridge Village since early 2025, and all three are tied to the same small group of organizations. The Root came first. The Saturday market followed in April 2026 with the center's owners among its sponsors. The Little Farm Stop is next, run by a nonprofit that lost its farm and was invited in by the same ownership group. When the Harvest Market packs up on Oct. 31, the next step is a store meant to sell Arkansas-grown food at that address Tuesday through Sunday, all year.
At Inez Reeder, we watch openings like the Little Farm Stop closely because they change what a home off Rodney Parham Road is close to. If you're weighing a move nearby and want a local read on what's opening around Breckenridge Village and the rest of West Little Rock, request a personalized market consultation.
