SC State Farmers Market Opens For Business At New Location

The South Carolina State Farmers Market is officially open for business at its new location in Lexington County.

Although it may not be completely finished until the spring of 2011, the new market is open to the public and already offering some great seasonal goodies. It’s over twice the size of the old farmers market on Bluff Road at 174 acres total.

“The transition is going really well from Bluff road to here. There’s a lot of vendors coming in and construction going on,” said Stephen Hudson spokesperson for the SC Department of Agriculture.

Returning vendors at the market, seem to agree.

“It’s a lot better than Bluff Road. There’s just a lot more space and it’s easier to get to, and it’s really clean unlike the other location which could get pretty dirty,” said Sarah Cassidy of Jacobs Produce.

The new market is opening in phases, with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Laboratory and Consumer Services facility, South Carolina Certified Grown farmer’s sheds, and administration buildings currently being built.

There are now private areas for the major wholesale vendors including V.B. Hook & Co., Inc., Senn Brothers Inc. and Supersod, Inc.

The farmers shed section is owned and operated by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture and will provide a place for South Carolina farmers to rent space on a daily or seasonal basis to sell their products.

Besides having more space, the market will also offer some new amenities.There will be a greenhouse section, an out-of-state produce building, and a 150-seat exhibition kitchen for cooking demonstrations.

The kitchen can also be used for cooking lessons or rented out for birthdays or catering events.

The market will also feature a 400-seat outdoor amphitheater, a restaurant called Judy’s at the market, an RV Park, a bakery and a children’s playground. The market will have specific children’s events as well like educational tours of the market, lessons on agriculture, farming and animals and events in the amphitheater like movies at the market.

“We’ll never be totally done. This is an ever evolving process and we will be developing this market for several years to come,” said Joe Numberger, Director of Operations at the farmers market.

Numberger said there have been some bumps along the way. The economy and the recession slowed many of these projects down as well as some bad weather.

“We had extremely bad weather at the end of last year and beginning of this year. One of the developers told me we received as much rain in the last six months as we usually get in a year,” said Numberger.

When building the new market, Numberger said that a lot of research went into the final layout. He said the developers looked at the old market and tried to determine how things could be done better.

 “They looked all around the country in New York at Chelsea Market, initiatives in California, Ashville, Atlanta and a lot of farmers markets to make this one cutting edge and state of the art,” said Numberger.

This weekend is their first big event, the Midlands Fall Plant and Flower Festival. There will be local vendors with pumpkins, different types of flowers, home décor and if you don’t have a green thumb, the Clemson Master Gardeners will be on hand to give gardening advice.

“It’s free. Free parking free admission; come find what you need for your yard. There are a lot of things that will make any yard the envy of the neighborhood.” said Hudson.

This is the first fall plant and flower festival in Columbia but it mimics the fall and spring festivals that take place in Florence and at the Greenville Market each year. 

Hudson encourages everyone to buy local grown to support farmers in the state and to get the freshest products. He said there are over 100 famers market’s in South Carolina alone.

“There is a shed here designed just for local farmers so they have a place to sell their product,” said Hudson.

Many of the vendor’s were already unloading their plants and flowers to have ready to go by 8 am Friday.

“We’ve got a lot of pumpkins, all different kinds, exotics, flowers, Indian corn and a lot of vegetables,” said Cassidy.

The old market on Bluff Road closes October 29, 2010.

 The new farmers market is located on U.S. Hwy. 321 and is within 1.5 miles of both I-77 and I-26, off of the Casey Exit. The Fall Flowers Festival will begin Friday and run through Sunday October 10.