Sunshine, blue skies, chefs, walkers, veggies and cheese.

It was a combination that had area residents at the intersection of Washington and Jackson streets early Saturday morning waiting for vendors to spread their wares, open their tents, and start the summer’s first Vicksburg Farmers’ Market. Market manager Sonny Hale estimated about 400 people attended the market.

“It was a combination of the weather, the health walk, excellent vendors and the cooking demonstration,” he said.

“The people were ready to go. They were waiting in their cars when I got here,” said Vicksburg Main Street chairman Kristen Meehan.

Shoppers were greeted by clear skies and temperatures in the mid-60s as they visited the vendors. The calm, warm weather was also the setting for Shape Up Vicksburg’s health walk around the market area, which took the walkers to Levee Street and back.

“We had about 30 walkers,” Shape Up Vicksburg founder Linda Fondren said. “I would have liked to have had more, but it was a good group. We had some people who had never seen the murals.”

Besides serving customers, the market vendors also provided ingredients for Lady Luck executive chef Henry Rodriquez and chefs Martin Juarez and Patrick Stamatelos.

The chefs provided menus and demonstrated how to prepare low-calorie dishes like Caribbean orzo salad — a pasta salad with roasted peppers, corn and beans.

Besides the cooking demonstration and the health walk, the market featured several new vendors offering items not featured at past markets.

One of the newcomers was Beaver-Dam Farms from Indianola, which was selling pickles, relish, eggs, and hydroponic-grown tomatoes and cucumbers, which are grown in a nutrient-rich solution in a greenhouse instead of in soil. Some of products were set on plates for sampling by customers and getting good reviews.

“The tomatoes are very low acid, and the eggs are pasture grown,” said owner Tina Benton, who was waiting on customers with partner Ken Barnes. “Our (chicken) feed has no preservatives or antibiotics.”

Benton said she learned about the market last year while selling her produce in Rolling Fork.

“Someone told me about it, and it sounded so good, I thought I’d try it out. We have had a very good response.”

Another first-timer, T&R Dairy of Liberty, was offering customers samples of different varieties of cheddar cheese, butter and southwest cheese dip, and drawing a crowd.

T&R also offered milk, chocolate milk and buttermilk, and a selection of meats, including T-bone and rib eye steaks, ground meat and ox tail.

“The crowd has been steady,” said Kimberly Ward, who was manning the booth with her mother, Mary Regan.

Alec and Bill Evans of Little Leaf Farms in Clinton were also selling their plants and produce for the first time here. “I came here last year to buy some plants and decided to come here this year,” Bill Evans said.

The market is open from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.