The Spokane Valley Farmers Market Moved. Here's What That Reorganizes About Your Summer.

For six seasons the Friday evening center of gravity in Spokane Valley sat on the West Lawn at CenterPlace. Kids ran between Discovery Playground and the KERNEL produce table, food trucks lined the plaza, and the market shared a parking lot with whatever wedding or quilt lecture was booked in the Great Room. That is not where the market is anymore.

For the 2026 season the City of Spokane Valley partnered with Four Roots and the Spokane Conservation District to produce the Spokane Valley Farmers Market at The Scale House Market at the Quarry, on Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m., running June 5 through August 28, 2026, at 4422 E 8th Ave. That is a mile and change south of CenterPlace, a different exit off I-90, and a very different setting. If you have been meaning to swing by and could not figure out why the West Lawn looked empty on a Friday at five, this is why.

The move that reorganized Fridays

The old location was a civic amenity attached to a rentable event center. The new one is a working conservation property. The Spokane Conservation District's 50-acre site is a hub for watershed protection, habitat preservation, recreation, and education, with diverse geological, hydrological, and ecological elements that make it suited for conservation-focused programming. The market is now stapled to a place that already has a year-round retail rhythm rather than a place that empties out between bookings.

The hours also tightened. Four to seven, not four to eight. That single hour matters if your Friday plan used to be "get there at 6:45 and eat dinner while the sun goes down." The window for arriving after work with kids is now narrower, and the market ends a full half hour before the August sunset instead of well after it.

What the Quarry actually is, if you have not been

If your mental map of 8th Avenue is mostly the stretch near Sullivan, the Quarry site sits west of that, tucked below the Dishman Hills slope. Beyond the mercantile, the outdoor extension runs every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with rotating vendors, live music, and hot food, and on Friday evenings from June through August the Spokane Valley Farmers Market takes over the space in partnership with the city of Spokane Valley. That means the Friday market is layered onto an operation that is already there, not parachuted into an empty plaza.

The programming underneath is unusual for the Valley. Kids in the Kitchen classes connect the next generation to real food and where it comes from, local chefs use the space to test ideas and collaborate, an on-site partnership with the Washington Small Business Development Center gives vendors access to mentorship, and the market accepts EBT/SNAP. The practical effect for a resident who already lives nearby: your Friday errand runs into a small-business incubator rather than a rentable banquet hall.

Greenacres finally has a destination worth crossing the Valley for

The other shift worth registering is on Sprague, well east of the market. The space at 17416 E. Sprague Ave. was formerly occupied by the Stupid Cow cafe, a traditional breakfast spot that sported rustic designs and a red barn-like exterior, and in early 2024 chef Joe Absolor temporarily moved back to the Spokane Valley with his eye on the building: "If I ever come back to Spokane, that's the building that I would open a restaurant at." The result is Dodos at the High Spot, which opened in early December.

Dodos at the High Spot is at 17416 E. Sprague Ave., open Tue–Sat from 3 to 9 p.m. A few operating details are worth knowing before you drive out. Since Dodos only accepts reservations for parties of six or more, get there early to secure a table; nearly every day at opening, there has been a line waiting at the door. And there is a quiet connective detail that ties Dodos back to the rest of this post: in partnership with the Spokane Conservation District, Dodos is installing bike racks so patrons can ride there via the Appleway Trail that parallels the Sprague Avenue corridor behind the restaurant.

The through-line is the Conservation District. It is anchoring the Friday market on 8th, and it is quietly wiring bike infrastructure into a new restaurant on Sprague. Two neighborhoods, one civic partner, one reason your summer routine has more options than it did last August.

The Appleway Trail is about to grow west

The 5.8 mile Appleway Trail is constructed on the old Milwaukee Railroad right of way, an east-to-west urban space that parallels the Sprague Avenue corridor, providing a continuous shared-use, paved path through the heart of Spokane Valley. Most residents know it. What is easier to miss is that the west end is about to change.

The project is the continuation of the Appleway Trail from S Farr Rd to S Dishman Mica Rd and will include work on sidewalks and stormwater elements, with the topographic survey extending past S Dishman Mica Rd to S Dale Rd. The design agreement is expected to run about two years, with an anticipated start in September of 2026. Nothing is under construction this summer, but the design phase begins this fall, which is why the west trailhead area is worth noticing on your next ride.

The trailhead has also gotten better company. As of fall 2024, construction was underway to connect the trail to the Spokane Valley Library and adjacent Balfour Park at 105 N. Balfour Road, located 0.2 miles north of the trail at its west end, and the newly opened park includes a soccer field, an events plaza, restrooms, and parking. The practical effect: a Friday you could not have easily strung together three summers ago. Park at Balfour, walk to the library, ride the trail east, and end at Dodos with bike racks waiting.

The August nights worth planning around

Two evenings on the calendar are doing real work this year. Spokane Valley's Mirabeau Point Park, home to CenterPlace Regional Event Center, offers a double feature this August: on back-to-back Fridays, August 1 and 8, Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot light up the lawn at sunset, with themed activities beginning earlier in the evening; the 55-acre park turns a single free screening into a full family affair, so bring lawn chairs and blankets and come early for lawn games and kids' activities.

Then the sky takes over. Dishman Hills, a protected 3,200-acre natural area, offers elevated viewing for the Perseid meteor shower, peaking August 11–13, with a front-row seat to as many as 75 meteors an hour. The trailhead is a short drive from the Quarry site, which means the same corner of the Valley you may have started visiting for the market is also the best place to end a mid-August night.

A weeknight, an actual one

If you want a specific plan rather than a menu of options, here is what a Friday between now and August 28 can look like without leaving the Valley:

1. Leave the house by 4:15. The market closes at 7 now, not 8.
2. Park at the Scale House Market at the Quarry, 4422 E 8th Ave. Do your produce run first, then eat from a truck.
3. Aug 1 or Aug 8, head north to Mirabeau Point Park for the movie. Any other Friday, drive east on Sprague to Dodos and get on the waitlist.
4. Aug 11, 12, or 13, skip everything else, pack a blanket, and drive up to Dishman Hills after 10 p.m.
5. Save Wednesday for the Millwood Farmers Market at Millwood City Park if you want a second, quieter market night.

The Valley's summer schedule has been quietly redrawn. The Friday market is south, a serious restaurant sits at the far east end of Sprague with bike parking pointed at the trail, the Appleway is about to grow toward Dishman Mica, and Balfour Park has become a real trailhead. None of that shows up on a portal. It shows up when a resident actually uses the neighborhood.

If you are thinking about how these shifts change the appeal of a specific street or pocket of Spokane Valley, or you own a home nearby and want to understand how walk-to amenities are pricing into the current market, Gayle Terry and The Collection are available for a complimentary consultation and home valuation.