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Farmers market to make comeback

• Downtown Albany will host the Southwest Georgia Food Alliance's farmers market starting June 7.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — With the city of Albany on board for the start of the event’s second year, officials with the Downtown Albany Farmers Market say they hope the weekly event can maintain the interest shown in the market initially last year before the intense Southwest Georgia heat chased customers away.

“We did better than we anticipated with the opening last year,” said Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and director of the Southwest Georgia Food Alliance, which sponsors the farmers market. “There was a great deal of excitement, and most of the vendors ran out of produce.

“We maintained that enthusiasm and support for several weeks, but eventually the support dwindled.”

Much of the decline in support could be attributed to the limitation of products offered at the market. That has been addressed as the 2008 market is being prepared for its June 7 opening.

“We were limited in what products could be sold at the market last year, but our move (to the downtown West Broad Avenue lot between the old Goodwill Store and the Farkas building) this year opens up the possibilities,” Linda Riggins, organizer and coordinator for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice, said. “More varieties should mean more customers.”

Along with locally grown produce that will be offered at the market, including organic goods and the “pot-ready” collard greens that proved so popular last year, selections this year will include pastries and cakes, Amish cheeses and butter, plants and flowers, and the wares of other vendors not available at last year’s market.

Also during the 16 weeks of the market, organizers will bring live entertainment and helpful information to customers, giving the market a carnival-like atmosphere. Well-known local entertainers Big Ernie and Willie Moody are among the performers already scheduled.

“We want to have live entertainment twice a month, every other week, and on the alternate weeks we want to provide customers with vital health information,” Riggins said. “We’ve scheduled people from the health department and the University of Georgia Ag Extension office to provide information about nutrition and healthy eating.”

Organizers of the market say one thing they’ve long sought and are happy to have this year is support from the city of Albany.

“We did this with no money to help generate interest in downtown,” Sherrod said. “We made it happen, and it’s time for the city to get involved. We’re very pleased that Mr. (Downtown Manager Don) Buie has gotten on board this year. Our farmers have a number of markets where they can sell their produce; they didn’t have to have a market downtown.”

Buie said he’s been working with the Southwest Georgia Food Alliance pretty much since he arrived in Albany six months ago. And he acknowledges that the group’s farmers market is ready to have a break-out summer.

“There’s a new marketing plan in place, and they’re bringing in vendors outside the normal agricultural market,” Buie said. “I’m very confident those folks are going to do a bang-up job and will be one of our more successful downtown ventures.

“I think the move this year will benefit the market because it allows them to bring in a wider variety of vendors. It just makes sense; there’s no reason you can’t have flowers and other prepared goods for sale at a farmers market.”

Both Buie and alliance officials say they hope to establish a permanent market in the downtown area soon.

“I think a permanent market is what everyone is hoping for,” Sherrod said. “It’s odd, but we have not really embraced agriculture in this area. And there’s no better way to do that, especially in today’s economy, than to support local farmers who bring their locally grown produce to the market.”

The farmers market this year will be held Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October. For information, contact Riggins or Sherrod at (229) 430-9870 or (229) 432-5799.

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