Things to Do in Ferndale Little Rock This Weekend

For years, the honest answer to "what's out in Ferndale?" was a shrug and a wave toward Chenal. The Dollar General handled essentials, everything else meant a drive east. That map changed quietly in March 2025, when a single four-way intersection out on Kanis Road picked up a produce-forward grocery next door to a farmers market that had been waiting for a neighbor. If you live along Kanis, Denny, Ferncliff, or the Ferndale Cutoff, the practical shape of your weekend has shifted, and it is worth walking through what is actually there now.

The corner that changed

The intersection of Kanis Road and Ferncliff/Ferndale Cutoff is the anchor. On the northwest side sits the Ferndale Extension Building at 27021 Kanis. On the southeast side, at 27024 Kanis, sits Ferndale Market, which opened Saturday, March 1st at 27024 Kanis Road in Little Rock, Arkansas 72223. The two addresses are within eyeshot of one another, and if you time it right on a Saturday between May and October, one visit covers a week's worth of produce, a bakery run, and a coffee.

The market's origin story matters because it explains what you will find inside. Ferndale Market, set at 27024 Kanis Road, is a joint effort between The Front Porch Market and Krause House Farms, carrying a variety of locally grown produce, specialty groceries, to-go meals, flowers and more. Owner Rick Mitchell was blunt about the gap it was built to close. "We have Dollar General here, but no produce. We're going to bring in a lot of local farms, a lot of local items from right here in Arkansas," Mitchell said. "That's the important basis of this business, but a food desert indeed is what Ferndale is and we're trying to resolve that."

That is the thesis of this guide in one line. Ferndale did not gain a boutique. It gained a produce aisle, which is a different kind of civic development.

Saturday morning, walking distance

The Ferndale Farmers Market predates the grocery next door and is the reason the corner had gravity to begin with. The Ferndale Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 9am to 12pm May through October at the Ferndale Extension Building, 27021 Kanis Rd., Little Rock, AR 72223, at the 4-way intersection of Kanis Rd. and Ferncliff/Ferndale Cutoff. If August humidity or a July thunderstorm rolls through, the market does not fold. Ferndale Farmers Market is rain or shine. If it is too hot or rainy, the market moves inside the Ferndale Extension Building.

A regular Saturday rotation might look like this:

Vendor mix leans toward Arkansas-grown produce, eggs, honey, baked goods, and prepared items. Rockskip Bakery bread has become the market's word-of-mouth item among repeat visitors, and Glori Salsa is a regular vendor. The market accepts new vendors all season, so the roster shifts month to month.

The weekday side of the corner

Farmers markets solve Saturday. Ferndale Market is what changed Tuesday through Friday. Hours run Wednesday through Saturday, 9am to 6pm, and Sunday 11am to 4pm, which covers the after-work window most Kanis-side residents actually shop in. The deli's lunch runs Wednesday through Sunday, roughly 11am to 1:30pm, with dinner service Wednesday through Saturday after 3pm. Coffee is Fidel & Company espresso, which is a small detail that tells you the operators are paying attention.

What is on the shelves is where the "not a food desert anymore" claim earns its keep:

• Locally grown produce sourced through Krause House Farms and partner growers
• Regional specialty groceries: sauces, jams, pantry staples from Arkansas producers
• Prepared to-go meals for weeknights when the drive back from Colonel Glenn or downtown gets long
• Cut flowers, a category that previously required a stop in the Promenade
• Coffee and pastry to go

If your household previously batched a weekly Costco or Kroger run because Ferndale offered nothing between them, the honest recalibration is that the perishables tier of that trip can now happen inside a five-minute drive.

The Friday catfish question

Two doors down, sharing the 27021 Kanis address with the Extension Building, is A Taste of Ferndale, a locally owned food truck that has been the constant on this corner. The truck runs Tuesday through Saturday with a split lunch and dinner schedule, closed Sunday and Monday, and the Friday catfish is the item locals mention first: "Food was hot and service is so friendly. Catfish on Friday is to die for."

The practical value here is scheduling. Friday lunch shifts to 11am to 7pm continuous service, which is the widest window of the week. If you are picking up groceries at Ferndale Market, dropping into the food truck for a fish plate on the way home turns a chore into a routine.

The trail you can reach before the lot fills

The corner covers food. The other half of a Ferndale weekend is the reason people moved out here in the first place, which is open ground. Rattlesnake Ridge Natural Area sits a short drive up Highway 10 and north on Barrett Road, and it is the closest serious trail system to the Kanis corridor.

The numbers are worth interpreting rather than reciting. Located in Pulaski County just west of Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Rattlesnake Ridge Natural Area protects rare plant and animal species while offering visitors a rugged, low-impact recreational experience, with habitat for the southeastern bat, western diamondback rattlesnake, and Wright's cliffbrake fern. The ridge is the watershed divide between the Big Maumelle and Little Maumelle rivers, comprised of a rare natural community called Ouachita Mountain Sandstone Outcrop Barrens, and rises up to 920 feet above sea level at its summit. That is not scenery filler. The ridge is why the area's drinking water stays clean, because Rattlesnake Ridge Natural Area plays a vital role in protecting the health of the Little Maumelle River watershed, which feeds into Lake Maumelle, a major source of drinking water for central Arkansas.

The trail system is smaller than Pinnacle's and rewards a specific kind of visit. With 6 miles of completed trails, all open to hiking and biking, trails vary in length and difficulty. Cliffbrake Trail is uphill only for bikes but can be traveled both directions for hikers and runners. Timber Trail, Cliffbrake Trail, and Diamondback Trail are considered moderately difficult. If you are new to the system, Cliffbrake to the summit is the payoff. The ridge itself rises dramatically above the surrounding landscape, offering panoramic views of Lake Maumelle, Pinnacle Mountain and Shinall Mountain.

Two logistics points that catch first-timers off guard:

1. The lot fills. Rattlesnake Ridge is the most visited preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, seeing over 42,000 visitors yearly. The parking lot is small. Weekend mornings after 9am, expect to circle or divert to Pinnacle. Ferndale residents have the geographic advantage of arriving before 8am without effort.
2. Weather closures are real. During times of wet weather, the natural area will be closed to protect the trails from damage, and visitors should call 501.663.6699 to check on the status. A Friday storm can shut Saturday morning down. The gate also closes at dusk.

For climbers, the Nowlin Creek area offers bolted moderate routes within a five-minute walk of the trailhead, which is unusually accessible for the region. The pond is stocked for catch-and-release fishing by Arkansas Game and Fish. All of this sits inside a larger conservation corridor that connects to Pinnacle Mountain State Park and Central Arkansas Water's Maumelle River lands, so a serious morning can string trails from one system into the next.

A repeatable Saturday, built from the corner outward

Here is the shape of a Ferndale weekend that did not exist two years ago:

• 7:00am: Drive up Highway 10 to Barrett Road. Cliffbrake Trail to the summit, back down before the lot pressure builds.
• 9:15am: Back on Kanis. Farmers market at the Extension Building, coffee and pastry from Ferndale Market across the intersection.
• 10:00am: Grocery pickup at Ferndale Market. Produce, flowers, whatever is on the to-go meal board for Sunday night.
• 11:30am: Fish plate at A Taste of Ferndale on the way home.

None of that requires leaving the 72223 zip code after the trail. That is the change. The corner at Kanis and Ferncliff is not a destination for people driving out from town. It is infrastructure for people who already live here, which is a quieter and more durable kind of neighborhood asset than a new restaurant on Chenal Parkway.

If you have owned acreage out here for a decade and are curious what all of this has done to what your land is actually worth in the current market, Kristen Honea McCready has been working Ferndale and the west-side acreage market long enough to answer that question with numbers rather than guesswork. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to see where your property sits today.