Apparently someone felt like they needed to teach the Atlanta farmer’s markets a lesson.

Meridith Ford Goldman writes from beyond the AJC paycheck that two formal complaints have prompted the city of Atlanta to crackdown on five of the city’s farmer’s markets (Morningside Farmers Market, East Lake Market, East Atlanta Village Market, Peachtree Road Farmers Market and SWOOM (Southwest Outdoor Organic Market).

And while the city of Atlanta has stated it wants to work with the farmer’s markets to come up with new specific regulations, for now it sounds like the new world of red-tape will result in some new fees and costs usually reserved for for-profit markets.

The newly resurrected East Lake Farmer’s Market is hosting a Collards Cook-off on opening day (May 1st).  Over on the Oakhurst Message Board, East Lake Market co-founder Amy Williams taunts cocky collards cookers with promises with regional bragging rights if they enter the contest.

As a deprived transplant, I think it’s a dang feet in itself that I even LIKE collards, but no one should expect me to rattle off my top 5 picks, starting with my great-grandmother’s recipe extending down through an array of local spots hidden in dingy strip-mall corners of Atlanta.  I just don’t have the background.  I chalk it up to nurture over nature.

So I’m curious, my more nurtured collards colleagues, where do you get your best collards and what is it exactly makes them so darn tasty?

This was just posted in DM’s classifieds section…

East Lake Farmers Market is located at the corner of 2nd Ave & Hosea Williams, at the convergence of the East Lake, Oakhurst, & Kirkwood neighborhoods. Last year East Lake resident Doug Williams started the farmers market against all odds. “We got the green light at the end of March, & managed to pull together a small but great group of vendors to participate by mid-May, operating all season on a tiny budget” Doug explains, who set-up the market every Saturday for 26 weeks. Each week, over 100 neighbors from around the area supported the market.

Many improvements are underway for the 2010 ELF Market season, which opens Saturday, May 1st with a ‘Collard Greens Cook-Off’ benefitting Hosea Feed the Hungry, including purchasing EBT equipment that will enable the use of food stamps, making healthy produce more available to all. Community fund raisers, live music, & market demonstrations are being planned throughout the season.

The ELF Market is now accepting donations for the 2010 season.