Kate and Walter Montgomery were packing up today, getting their bread-and-butter pickles, pound cake, banana cake, fig preserves and vegetables ready to go Saturday morning, the first day of this year’s Vicksburg Farmers’ Market.

The market, moving a block north to Catfish Row from the Levee Street Depot, will open at 8 with 15 vendors, at least two of whom will be new to the gathering that for a third year will offer art and collectibles as well as fresh produce and canned foods.

“I was raised on a farm. So, I’ve done it all my life,” Kate Montgomery said of her pickles. She has about two dozen pint-sized jars ready.

The couple grows their produce in a garden near their house and on two large fig trees.

“We probably get at least 100 gallons off the two trees each year,” said Walter Montgomery.

Mary Beth Lasseter and Kristen Meehan have volunteered for three years to organize the market that will operate from 8 until 11 a.m. on Saturdays and from 4 until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 28.

Last year, Meehan said, about 3,000 patrons strolled through the market on opening day.

“We’re hoping our opening day is as good as last year’s,” she said.

“We want our vendors to produce 80 percent of what they sell so we can have good quality items,” Meehan said.

The market is moving this year because of construction near the Levee Street Depot. About nine spaces remain available for rent of $100 each, Meehan said.

Vendors who sell from their truck beds will have areas in the parking lots across from Catfish Row, just east of the city’s Riverfront Murals, and others will set up tables and umbrellas on the sidewalk.

Blues musicians Osgood and Blaque will be the entertainment for the opening market, said Meehan, who expects other artists to perform throughout the summer.