Greg Coleson sends along the announcement…

DECATUR FARMERS MARKET MOVES TO NEW LOCATION

New Location to Offer Fresh, Local Food in Beautiful Community Space

ATLANTA, Dec. 17 2013- Community Farmers Markets (CFM) is excited to announce that the Wednesday Decatur Farmers Market will launch at a new location in the beginning of 2014. Starting on January 15, 2014 the Wednesday Decatur market will be held in the spacious front lawn of The Decatur First Baptist Church on the corner of Clairemont and Commerce Drive.

“We are incredibly excited by this relocation and our new partnership with The Decatur First Baptist Church,” says Katie Hayes, Executive Director of CFM, the umbrella organization that operates the Decatur Farmers Market. “In addition to offering our patrons a beautiful, communal space to shop and congregate, this move empowers the Decatur Farmers Market to expand the number of residents we serve and offer a great variety of healthy, local foods.”

The Wednesday Decatur Farmers Market is open year around and helps make healthy and local food accessible to thousands of Decatur residents. The market currently boasts 26 diverse vendors offering a variety of produce, meats, breads, dairy, baked goods, teas, candles, rubs, prepared meals and dog treats, among other items. The market also helps support Georgia’s farmer economy while providing a community space for families and residents to enjoy. The Saturday Farmers Market location will remain the same.

“Sustainable food and meaningful fellowship are often essential ingredients to any healthy and thriving community, said Van Smith of The Decatur First Baptist Church. “We are excited to leverage our church home to partner with CFM to continue its mission making healthy food accessible to all Atlantans.”

To learn more about the Wednesday Decatur Farmers Market, please visit decaturfarmersmarket.com

Locations

Decatur Wednesday will be located at 308 Clairemont Avenue. Market hours are 4pm-7pm during Daylight Savings and 3pm-6pm during the winter.

Decatur Saturday is located at 498 N McDonough Street, next to Decatur High School. Market hours are 9am-1pm during Daylight Savings and10am-1pm during the winter.

Great piece on the Atlanta Magazine website reporting that the new managers and operators of the Decatur Farmer’s Market, Community Farmer’s Markets, are already bringing in new vendors.

New vendors have already started coming to the market, and today their ranks continue to grow. In addition to loyal, long-time vendors such as Greenleaf Farms, Zocalo Salsas, Stone Mountain Herbs, and Besmaid Garden Essentials, today you’ll find Laughing Rabbit Farm, Mountain Earth Farm, Watsonia Farms, S & J Wood-fired Pizza, Doggy Dogg ATL, and King of Pops. On Saturdays, all the new farms will be back, plus Scharko Farms.

“There will be more vendors coming, especially at the Saturday market,” says Katie Hayes, director of Community Farmers Markets and acting market manager. “The No. 1 thing we wanted to do was get more farmers.” Also scheduled for upcoming Saturday markets: coffee. It’s not grown locally, but it is roasted locally, and it sure makes an early morning shopping trip more pleasant.

As the article notes, now the market just needs more customers to keep those new vendors coming back.  Keep up to date on the Decatur Farmer’s Market HERE!

In addition to an already reported new location, Decatur Farmer’s Market founders Greg and Nicole Coleson are in negotiations to transfer operational control of the market.  From Atlanta Magazine’s Covered Dish blog…

Market founders Greg and Nicole Coleson are in discussions to transfer operational control of the market to Community Farmers Markets, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Grant Park and East Atlanta Village farmers markets.

The switch would certainly mean an increase in resources devoted to the market, and would likely result in a larger, more consistent collection of vendors.

“We just couldn’t dedicate the time and the energy to it that it needs,” says Nicole Coleson, who with her husband started the market in 2002, right around the time their daughter was born. “So when they approached us, we said, ‘Yes, it’s absolutely time.'”

But the transfer isn’t a done-deal just yet.  Check out the full Atlanta Mag post for all the details.

Greg points to this announcement on the Decatur Farmer’s Market website…

The City of Decatur(CoD) and Decatur Farmers Market(DFM) reached a tentative agreement to allow DFM to hold the weekly Wednesday and Saturday market at the redesigned Beacon Hill Complex multipurpose courtyard (see the rendering in the post). The tentative date for the project completion is spring of 2015. We are very excited about this and have been working with the city for years to come up with a suitable long term location to hold the market.

Many thanks to Lena Stevens and Lyn Menne from the CoD for their work on this as well as Duane Marcus (our market manager) and Steve Provost for their site input.

Greg Coleson passes along the info on the Decatur Farmer’s Market’s big anniversary plans next month…

Wednesday June 13th, 2012
Lidell with Chuice will be making a presentation about raw foods and nutrition and giving out samples.
Andrea Zoppo with the Sally Wylde Center will be doing face painting and making balloon animals
Wyde Center will be there representing Decatur Farm to School and themselves.
Silent Auction to support Wholesome Wave EBT Double Value program
We will be cooking up some delicious Tinks Beef burgers and serving beer for a donation which will also go to support Wholesome Wave.

Saturday June 16th, 2012
Chef demo by Billy Allin of Cakes & Ale
The Giant Peach dude from Pearson Peaches will be there.
Sally Wylde Center will be there again for Farm to School and Themselves.
Camp Scene will be there with fun kids activties
Decatur Ukulele Society will be playing.
Silent Auction to support Wholesome Wave EBT Double Value program