The 2009 Sandhills Farmers Market was a feast that consisted of a large variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables! Its offerings appealed to the taste buds of health enthusiasts, children, local cooks, and those answering to the call of “Buy Local!” But the Sandhills Farmers Market was more than just vegetables.
The growing season was kicked off with a fundraiser fish fry by Kingdom CDC. Cooks from the organization sold fresh fried fish plates all afternoon long to the delight of a large number of satisfied customers. Who ever heard of fried fish at the Farmers Market? It was a winning combination!
In an effort to connect fresh food grown on local land to more than just the table, several workshops were offered throughout the growing season. Two of them were designed to introduce children to the adventures surrounding the growing of food. A worm composting education display was set up. Visitors to the market were fascinated by watching the worms do there thing in a container that could be kept in the house! Hands on Healthy Snacks tied in the benefits of fresh vegetables to ways to create healthy, tasty snacks that kids would love to make and eat!
For those who wanted the benefits of eating fresh, locally grown foods, but who were still developing there cooking skills, new recipes were offered free of charge in our weekly newsletter. The newsletter also contained health information that could be tied to good nutrition. A master gardener from the Cooperative Extension Service came out one Saturday to answer any questions that market visitors had.
The Sandhills Farmers Market is more than just a place to come and support your local grower by buying local; it is a place to come and build relationships with the people that grow your food, make your homemade preserves, and keep the market running. Do you want to know how to shell field peas? Growers are happy to demonstrate. Do you want to talk about how your great aunt Sarah used to make the tastiest peach preserves? Our preserve vendor would love to hear of it. Need to know how to freeze okra? The lady who grows 7 foot okra has plenty of experience to share.
Is history more to your liking? Some of our growers have lived in the Sandhills region for close to 100 years. They have many interesting stories to tell of what it was like growing up during a different time period or what it was like when their grandma was a child living during the Civil War.
The Sandhills Farmers Market is more than just a place to buy food. It is relationships and history, education and fun, health and nutrition. It is a bridging of the gap between our food and our bellies that has been expanding along with our waistlines and medical problems as a result of our increasing demand for convenience foods.
The Sandhills Farmers Market was made possible through funding by the USDA, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program, and the NC Rural Center.
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