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Farmers market open again for 2021 season

By Michael Futch, posted Jul 15, 2021 on BizFayetteville.com


Visitors and vendors alike enjoy annual farmers market. (Photo provided by District Summer Market at Festival Park.)

In case you’re unaware, the District Summer Market at Festival Park is up and running as the heat and humidity of another summer swells over southeastern North Carolina.

This farmers and arts and crafts market, sponsored by the Cool Spring Downtown District, is scheduled to open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday at the Fayetteville park at 335 Ray Ave.

The pilot season’s inaugural market was held June 3, and the farmers market is expected to run through Aug. 26. It was not open on July 1, which was the date for the planned Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra’s annual Independence Day concert.

“Cool Spring is always looking for opportunities to bring folks downtown to family-friendly events where they can shop, eat and play. They honestly saw a need for a larger farmers market,” said Jenny Bell, the market’s 41-year-old manager. “And saw that folks, first of all -- the priority is to shop local. You hear that more and more these days, especially in this post-pandemic world that we’re living in.

Bell runs the market along with an assistant market manager. Downtown staff has been supportive, and student volunteers assist in helping to operate the market.

“Many of these small businesses that come to this market are potential downtown businesses,” Bell explained. “I think people are going back to this notion of helping local business. One of downtown’s goals was not only to grow business, but residents.”

In that regard, leaders with the Cool Spring Downtown District envision the market as a kind of incubator for small business enterprise in the Fayetteville community.

“If we can help these small businesses succeed to the point where they can justify a brick-and-mortar shop,” she said, “then we can potentially draw them to the downtown area.”

Thursday evening was selected as the time for this weekly market because other outdoor markets in the area primarily are open over the weekend through the summer months.

In this case, the idea is that those leaving their jobs for the day on Thursday can stop by Festival Park and pick up some fresh, local groceries, maybe some hot food from the mobile food trucks on site and enjoy some live entertainment, as well.

Roughly 25 vendors will be selling their products at the market each week, according to the district. They include a variety of farmers, ranchers, desert makers, artists, artisans and other various makers.

The vendors -- many of whom are military veterans -- are charged $25 a week to peddle their wares on site. Because Bianca Shoneman, the president and CEO of the Cool Spring Downtown District, did not want to make money from the vendors, Bell said, “They help us turn around and pay, for instance, the local musicians who come out and perform every week. “Downtown, obviously, is our arts and entertainment district, and we believe in supporting our local artists as much as possible,” she added. “So paying them for their performances was really important to us. The money also is used to invest in a bunch of yard games that we spread out on the lawn for people to enjoy while they are out there and other entertainment-type activities.”

One farmer sells seafood. A rancher whose livestock includes cattle, goats, chickens and swine, too, falls among the regular vendors who set up for the weekly outdoor market.

A dedicated mushroom farmer sells a variety of mushrooms, too.

Richard Hubbard, who is 35, owns and operates Cape Fear Mushrooms in Stedman in the eastern part of Cumberland County. He grows about eight different species of mushrooms and approximately 16 different types of mushrooms for the marketplace.

“We actually just started up at the end of last year,” he said. “We pretty much sold directly to customers. … The thing about it -- this allows us to connect with the customer base. We’re a home-based farm so we don’t have a store. This kind of gives us a place where people can come to us directly.”

Thus far, from a business perspective, Hubbard reports that he will continue to work the District Summer Market as long as he can maintain the business. “We’ve had a lot of good success from the people,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of momentum going.”

Crew Family Orchards will soon be joining the lineup of vendors, according to Bell. The business, owned by Nate and Amanda Crew, was established in 2016 in Fayetteville. Today, Crew Family Orchards grows, among other products, organic peaches, pecans and olives.

“They have an olive orchard. An olive and fruit orchard,” Bell said. “They harvest olives outside Fayetteville and make olive oil. He bottles it and sells it.”

Other vendors include those who focus on seasonal produce -- from microgreens to peaches. Vendors also offer personal care products, soaps, CBD and hemp products.

The home-based start-up Bread & Sugar By Dali has remained a popular vendor with their baked sourdough breads. That entrepreneurship sells at the DirtBag Ales farmers market on Sundays, too.

Canned beer and glasses of wine are sold. Lake Gaston Brewing Company and Bright Light Brewing Company are the two downtown breweries from which the beer is sourced.

The public is able to apply to be a vendor at one or more of the dozen markets planned over the summer.

If interested, apply via a Google application or email marketmanager@coolspringfay.org for more information. If you’re a business interested in sponsoring one or more of the markets, email bianca@coolspringfay.org.

“It has been really interesting to see. We’ve had three markets so far,” Bell said. “The first one was a rainy, stormy day. We still had attendees come out. But the attendance has built to last week’s market, when we hosted the Fayetteville Pride Community Picnic. We estimated somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people came out to the market. And that was amazing. Our vendors were very successful. Our food trucks -- we had people lined up for food. We try to have at least four food trucks out there every Thursday.

“So we just expect the market attendance to grow, especially as word of mouth spreads.”


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