The organizers, vendors and supporters of the Albert Lea Farmers Market deserve praise. The market has really blossomed this year, with entertainment and eats every Wednesday really bringing out the crowds. The market is the place to be in Albert Lea on Wednesday afternoon.

It makes a great example of how to keep a downtown thriving &8212; give people good reasons to be there. In fact, make the events so good people feel like they are missing out if they are not there. The Albert Lea Farmers Market has done just that.

Not only does it feature musical fun and ready-to-eat fare, the market itself provides a wide selection of goods: pastries, fresh tomatoes, fresh bread, honey, fruits and vegetables, jellies and jams, crafts, dog biscuits, plants, flowers, meats, herbs, gourds and &8212; well, there&8217;s so much that we must be forgetting something.

Anyway, everything is good.

The Albert Lea Farmers Market takes place every from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

You ought to go.

A word about ethanol

The Tribune&8217;s editorial stance clearly supports ethanol use and production. We also cherish dialogue. In that American spirit of free speech and free press, we publish Tom Purcell&8217;s opinion column below right. We feel it is valuable for readers to know what other people are saying in the debate over ethanol, even though it is not how the Tribune feels.

In fact, we would very much welcome letter writers or a local guest-column writer to rebut what Purcell writes.