East Lake Farmers Market

The urban pioneers of the East Lake Neighborhood have started a farmers market at the corner of 2nd avenue and Hosea L. Williams drive. It's located in the parking lot and the footprint of a demolished building. On any Saturday there are usually six to eight vendors. Small now but I believe the time is here for such grass roots endeavors to succeed.

I remember as a kid going with my mom to the see the "Vegetable Man" every Thursday in the summer. The Vegetable Man was a local farmer that had a pickup truck set up with sides that closed and a tin roof. He would park on the side of the road on the back way to Jower's grocery, open the sides and hang the scale on one of the roof rafters. Right now only Isabelle is interested in going to the East Lake Farmers Market with me. Once there is more to see I can probably get them both there, but I digress.

The feature vendor of the week is Fresh Roots Farm. Fresh Roots Farm is a sub acre farm located off Howell Mill Road near the water works. They are currently working on starting a roof top garden. I'll post and add pictures when additional information is available.

I have previously purchased two kinds of radishes and carrots for them. This week I got Arugula, also available were squash, tomatoes and radish. The peaches they had were from a farm in Fort Valley, Georgia.

The market is still looking for fresh prepared food vendors (pastas, dips, jellies, etc), bread, cheese, egg, and meat vendors, and we welcome more craft vendors as well. There are specific applications for each type, but the basics include that you must be a business, carry insurance, etc, grow, craft or make the product yourself and for prepared foods, food products, and breads that you are using a commercial kitchen. If you or someone you know thinks that they meet these requirements and would like an application or discuss joining our market as a vendor, please email Doug Williams at douglasmwilliams at yahoo dot com.

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