📝 Ha Long Bay 2.0 is coming

🌻 Farmers’ Market Season Is Near

• The first outdoor Dane County Farmers' Market of the 2024 season is set for April 13. That means fresh produce, local flowers, spicy cheese bread, and more all around the Capitol Square. The market runs weekly on Saturdays from 6:15 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.
• The weekly Wednesday market on the 200 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. will start its season April 24. If you want the sneak peek of what’s new at the market this year, you’ll want to check out the City Cast Madison podcast next week!
• The start of the outdoor market means the end of the indoor season. April 6 is the last Late Winter Market at Garver Feed Mill, which will run from 8 a.m. to Noon.
• Chatter prompt: What are your tips for shopping the market? Do you prefer to get the pick of the produce in the early morning or snag deals when the market is wrapping up? Do you walk clockwise or counter clockwise? Who’s your favorite vendor? Let us know! [Channel 3000, DCFM]

🏆 Wisconsin’s James Beard Finalists

• The James Beard finalists have been announced and spoiler: none of the Madison nominees made it. Of the 12 Wisconsinites nominated for 2024 James Beard Awards, just two chefs from Milwaukee have advanced to the nominee round. Dan Jacobs (known for being the first Wisconsin contestant on “Top Chef”) and Dan Van Rite are co-nominees for Best Chef: Midwest for their restaurant EsterEv in Milwaukee.
• Dig deeper: Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger, chefs and co-owners of Fairchild, took home the title last year. [Cap Times, City Cast Madison 🎧]

☄️ From Outer Space to UW-Madison

• In 2009 in the Town of Vienna — just a short drive north of Madison — farmer Jim Koch was prepping his fields when his plow kicked up an unusually hefty rock. Turns out, the heavy rock wasn’t really a rock at all, but an iron meteorite, and the largest one found in the United States since 1981. Now, 15 years later, the meteorite will have a new home at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.
• You can see the space rock for yourself when it goes on display this weekend during the Geology Museum’s open house as part of the annual UW Science Expeditions showcase. [UW-Madison]

The Next Generation of Hạ Long Bay

Hạ Long Bay, the popular Vietnamese restaurant on Willy Street, is known for lines out the door and a takeout business so strong their phone is literally often off the hook. And now, the eastside neighborhood staple is under a new generation of family ownership.