Summer unofficially arrived Thursday in downtown Tacoma with the opening of the farmers market on two blocks of Broadway.

More than 80 farmers, crafters, artisans and food vendors set up their white (and a few blue) canopies on the street and the adjacent Pierce Transit Theater Square.

And the people came.

By noon, as downtown office workers took their lunch breaks to eat and shop at the market, Broadway was curb-to-curb with people. They carried bags of vegetables and large bouquets of flowers. They lined up for food, everything from tacos to cabbage rolls.

“It’s a crazy beautiful turnout today,” said Todd Deshazo of Infinite Soups, a market favorite. He had sold out most of his eight soups. The favorite: West African Peanut.

It was Go Local Day at the market, sponsored by Go Local Tacoma, a non-profit group that works to connect residents with local and independently owned businesses.

Deshazo’s restaurant is an example of that independent business: Locally made soup with produce locally grown.

“This is how we started,” he said as he ladled soup. Instead of jumping into the expense of a full-bore restaurant, Deshazo used the public market as his test market four years ago. The soup moved and in 2007 he opened his restaurant.

At Gradwohl’s All Natural Beef, Jeff Rademaker picked up a couple of filet steaks for $22.

“I’ve been coming here for 13 years,” said Rademaker, who works downtown and comes most weeks to the Thursday market, spending $70 to $80 each time.

That kind of spending helped the market, run by the non-profit Tacoma Public Market, bring in $530,000 in sales last year. Mike Gradwohl’s and his beef from Covington were a new addition to the market. His family has been raising miniature cattle for decades but a few years ago added packaged beef.

He feared the down economy would slow sales but so far the response was good, he said.

Gradwohl and his staff of 16 are doing 18 public markets a month around the Puget Sound. His overriding concern, he said, was that the farming industry is going down. He hopes the movement to buy local will help local farmers.

Valerie Foster has the same hope. She and her daughter, Holly, farm Zestful Gardens, a 35-acre certified organic farm in the Puyallup Valley. Last year her vegetable sales were up 30 percent over the previous year.

“I’m very optimistic (about farming,)” Foster said, “or I wouldn’t be investing my time in this.”

She has started a community-supported agriculture program where customers pay the farm $550 up front and then get five months of weekly shares of fresh food staring June 9. About 100 people have signed up.

“It’s people investing in our ability to farm,” she said, adding that with all the recent national food scares, buying from a local farm is “one way for people to take control of their food.”

Food wasn’t the only thing on the menu at the market. The Dance Brooms, an 8-year-old break dancing group from Tacoma, set up in front of LeRoy Jewelers and drew appreciative glances from shoppers.

“Dance helps brings us together as a community,” said dancer Eddie Sulin, 24.

Inside LeRoy Jewelers, owner Phyllis Harrison looked out the street full of booths and smiled. Anything that brings a lot of people past her door is good for business, because they often come back to shop inside.

“We love having the market back,” she said. “We are convinced it brings good weather.”

Harrison had already bought cheese and vegetables, basil and pretzels but was still debating whether to buy a worm composter.

Janie Kautz of Tacoma began coming to the market when her children were in strollers. Now they’re heading to high school.

She was back as usual and wanted to make sure she picked up garlic and dill goat cheese from Blue Rose Dairy in Winlock. The goat dairy was a big hit last season.

Kautz also picked up cucumber plants, ground beef, spinach but wasn’t done yet.

“We’re having guests from out of town,” she said. “I can come down here and get everything we need.”

Her market advice: Come early before “the good stuff” is gone.

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692 mike.archbold@thenewstribune.com