Easley Farmers Market Begins Season April 6

Spring is almost here and the Easley Farmers Market is preparing for another great year.

Farmers Market Manager Lisa Garrett says the market's fifth season will begin April 6.

“It will run through October 5,” Garrett said.

The market will again be held Saturdays from 8am to noon in the parking lot in front of Easley City Hall.

The market continues to grow year over year, Garrett said.

“When the market first started, we might have had 30 vendors participate,” she said. “This last year, throughout the season, we have over 70 vendors participate in our market. It has grown tremendously.

“We have seasonal growers who do strawberries, blueberries, peaches,” Garrett continued. “Then we have growers who grow things all season long. Some of them are year-round gardeners and they grow things all-year long.”

There's always a variety at the Easley Farmers Market, she said.

“We've been inviting craft vendors and artists to come in,” Garrett said. “We have folks with local honey, fresh eggs, South Carolina shrimp. We have food vendors, live music, cooking demos, activities for children. There's always something going on at the marker on Saturday morning.”

The Easley Farmers Market accepts SNAP benefits.

“Anyone who receives SNAP, they can come to the market and use those benefits for our fresh vegetables,” Garrett said. “Anything basically they can buy at the grocery store with their SNAP, they can get at the market.”

This year the farmers market is trying something new.

“We're going to try a Tuesday evening market,” Garrett said. “It's going to be at the height of growing season, which will be June 4 through August 27.”

The Tuesday evening market will be from 5pm – 8pm in the same location as the Saturday market, she said.

“We hope that we can folks coming in off work, coming in and buying their fresh vegetables before going home,” Garrett said. “We're also looking at having some food vendors, so you can come in, get your supper, get your groceries and go home from there.”

Farmers market customers are supporting “local growers and local farmers.”

“Some of these folks, this is the their only source of income,” Garrett said. “And it's always 1,000 miles fresher, when you buy local.”

The first year of Easley's community garden was very successful, Garrett said.

The garden, located behind City Hall, provided 800lbs of fresh vegetables and needy families, she said.

Organizations that received vegetables from the community garden include SHINE, Meals on Wheels, the Backpack program at East End Elementary, 5 Point Church food bank, Enon Baptist Church food bank and Crossroads Baptist Church food bank.

This year, the garden will adopt a rotational crop system.

“That way we'll have something growing all the time and we'll go from spring crops to summer crops to fall crops and keep it going on a rotational basis,” she said.

The garden wouldn't be successful without the many volunteers who pitch in throughout the growing season.

“I'm always looking for volunteers,” Garrett said. “If you have a group that would like to come out and work in the garden, there's always something to do. Call me at City Hall and I'll be glad to show you where it is.”