Farmers markets are more than just a place to shop for local produce and foods. They are valuable hubs for culture, showcasing communities’ unique blend of people, cuisine, arts and even music. In High Springs, the area’s many farmers, crafters and artisans gather with the community at their local High Springs Farmers Market to sell a variety of homegrown and homemade goods. Vendors are required to produce all their goods themselves, meaning everything sold there is fresh, local and truly one of a kind. Customers have the opportunity to support local businesses while shopping for local produce and niche items not found on grocery store shelves. Going to the High Springs Farmers Market is an experience for the senses. There are delicious, prepared foods, beautiful artwork, scented candles and coffee, live music and crochet pieces.
A trip to the market could simply be a fun thing to do on a Friday night, or it could be a bountiful weekly grocery run. Customers can find all the expected farmers market items, such as produce, local honey, baked goods and plants. Several vendors bring ready-to-eat foods, such as Tamales by Vicky, Stars & Stripes Coffee Co. and Mama & Girls Salsa. Some truly odd and unusual things can be found there, too. Wild Man Foods brings more exotic meats such as wild hog, water buffalo, frog legs, quail, rabbit and smoked mullet. Maxwell Maile sells jewelry made from chainmail. It is always Halloween for Skullastic Affairs, with their lamps, planters, solar lights and more made with human skull motifs.
Hard-to-find exotic plants and fruits are sold at the market, including guavas, starfruit and locally grown pineapples. Roughly 50 vendors attend the High Springs Farmers Market each year, although only about 30 attend on any given week. Many are local to High Springs and elsewhere in Alachua County, while some vendors come from as far away as Live Oak, Steinhatchee and Lake City.
A farmers market family
The High Springs Farmers Market has been a community tradition since the late 1990s. Many vendors and customers have been going there for years. These regulars see each other every week, and they have become like one big family. Market Manager Carol Rowan has essentially become the market family’s matriarch. Rowan started attending the market in 2004 with her business, Carol’s Bags and More. Due to her outgoing personality, eagerness to help others and years of experience and knowledge of farmers markets, she became the manager in 2016. Rowan has always helped her market neighbors out, and she encourages other vendors to do the same. When a vendor pulls up, others pitch in to help unload their vehicles and set up their tents and tables. They stop over at each other’s booths to chat in their spare time. Many vendors buy from each other or barter and trade their items.
“We’re like a family, we help each other. I can’t say enough good things about the vendors I do have,” Rowan said. “We talk, we communicate, and it’s a great feeling. It’s a good-energy market.”
Customers come to hang out with the vendors and each other, often spending two or three hours there. It is a positive atmosphere where newcomers and regulars can spend time with their community. Bambi Liss is one of the High Springs Farmers Market vendors who loves the community atmosphere. She started selling baked goods and vegetables from her farm at the market in 2012 and later expanded to offer salads, healthy bowls, hummus and other prepared vegan foods. She took a hiatus from the market when she opened Bambi’s Country Market & Café in downtown High Springs in the beginning of 2017, but she returned in late 2020.
“We have our regular customers who come back every week. I love it,” she said. “We have good customers, good management, and it’s a great little location for our little town.”
A cozy new home
Thanks to a nearly $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the High Springs Farmers Market has a comfortable and spacious new home. The 100-foot by 140-foot pavilion that opened in October 2020 has brick columns, lighting, electrical outlets and large cooling fans and can fit roughly 20 vendors. The beautiful pavilion brings added value to the market by keeping vendors and attendees cool and shaded, supplying power to keep prepared food warm and lighting to keep everyone safer at night. This has allowed the market to be held at the more popular Friday evening time, as it was previously held during daylight hours on Thursdays.
“We waited for years for this pavilion to be built, and it is such a blessing to have that coverage over us, and to have electricity when we need it for say a soup warmer,” Liss said.
Feeding families
The High Springs Farmers Market is one of the only markets in the area that is part of the Fresh Access Bucks program. Known as FAB, the program doubles the amount of money SNAP recipients can spend on produce, meats and other foods, as well as plants that produce food, to encourage SNAP recipients to purchase healthy fruits and vegetables. FAB is funded by the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive grant program through the USDA. A SNAP recipient swipes their card at the market manager’s booth, which serves like an ATM, where they receive tokens in $1 and $5 increments they can spend only at the market.
The FINI grant matches their spending, doubling their money in tokens. This program benefits farmers and producers, too, who are imbursed from the token dollars. FAB started at High Springs Farmers Market in 2017. For 2018, the first full year of the program, the market had matched $6,493 of FAB money. That jumped to $12,468 FAB dollars in 2020, likely because of the financial burdens that came from the COVID-19 outbreak. The market is on track to smash 2020’s record in 2021, with $8,452 already matched by the beginning of March.
“We’re feeding all these families. It’s amazing,” Rowan said. “It doubles their money, so they can buy more of their chicken and shrimp and honey and vegetables, and then on top of that still have money left over for extra vegetables and producing herbs and things.”
HIGH SPRINGS FARMERS MARKET
WHEN: 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays year-round
WHERE: Farmers Market Pavilion, 23517 NW 185th Road, High Springs
INFO: Visit Highsprings.us/farmers