I had an amazing morning this past Saturday at the Charlottesville City Market. There was something for everyone:
- Vegetarians: from fresh young bamboo shoots to local strawberries and purple spring onions, the potential for a ridiculous vegetarian meal was easily within one’s reach
- Jewelry: from conservative to on-the-edge, designed young and old were out strutting their stuff
- Meats: there was some serious sausage grilling giving the market a nice smoky aroma
- Politics: Obama 08′, Amnesty International, and a group petitioning against the proposed dam made sure you knew what their deal was
- Eggs: probably every farm except Polyface (why?) sold farm fresh eggs
I was really impressed by how truly “local” this market really was. Most of the vegetable farms had the same produce with the exception of one that had an amazing selection of bell peppers. Strawberries are definitely in season as seen by the new Flickr stream. I had a chance to meet some wonderful local artists, namely:
- Amy Schilling of Girls Day Out. She had a selection of jewelry and accessories for women and children. Check out the cute flip-flops in the pics that she dolled up
- Jason McLeod was there with wife Greta von Kirchmann showing off their silver jewelry collection. If you can’t make it to the City Market, you can catch Jason’s jewelry at Angelo Jewelry on the downtown mall
- Erin McDermott had a huge selection of beaded necklaces and earrings
- Maggie Stultz had her “whimsical one-of-a-kind fun and functional pottery for sale”. Chatting with her for a bit revealed she is one of the master’s of the local Raw Food scene. She is organizing a hands on raw-food workshop on Friday, July 18th from noon to 4:30PM. Send her an email for more details
Toan Nguyen, owner of C’ville Coffee was out in full force selling many a breakfast treat such as the delicious Chocolate Chip Honey Bunches (only $.75 each!), and the much needed early morning caffeine fix…after all he is in the coffee business! Another great market personality was Satyrfield Dairy Goats’ John Coles. He is definitely a local small-farm champion. Manufacturing raw-milk goat cheese puts him in the Virginia Department of Agriculture’s cross-hairs for trying to sell un-pasteurized dairy products. Obviously a survivor, John chooses to give his cheese away for free and accepts donations in return. Look into his eyes and you can see cheese is a labor of love.
Needless to say it was an amazing Saturday morning. If you ever needed one, the Charlottesville City Market is definitely a reason to stay home Friday night to get up early and take part in the local food scene on Saturday mornings.
Tagged as: Donuts, fresh farm eggs, local farm, local food, slow food, vegan
I’m torn as I just joined a CSA this year and I’m having a hard time pulling the trigger on veggies at the market without knowing what’s showing up in my CSA produce box. I’m trying to get better but I don’t eat THAT much greenery.
Is that where you pay a set amount and have a basket of good delivered weekly/monthly from local farms?
Yes, actually just one local farm in this case.
I need to stop drinking so much on the weekends so I can be functional and pleasant enough to walk to the market Saturday morning.
actually, I just need to stop drinking so much on the weekends period.
@4: BOOOOOO
@4 and@ 5: Yeah, being functional and pleasant are way overrated.
true true, my peer pressure friends, but local vegetables are not overrated. they are rated appropriately as awesome. I need to get me some.
Yer a local vegetable…on Saturday mornings.
!!!!!!! thanks fer making me spit on my laptop!
those pics look so fresh i just bit my computer screen
Score!
I went to the farmer’s market for the first time ever this past weekend (I’ve either been out of town every Saturday or too hungover to be functional before 12pm). I loved it! And I’ve been eating my fresh lettuce, chard & garlic scapes in some delicious salads all week.
i went to the farmers market last fall & was so disappointed i never returned. maybe it’s better in the spring?
this market could really get rid of all of the bakers and artisans! don’t we have the downtown mall to sell soaps, hammocks, and jewelry? i heard the organizers of the cville farmer’s market are getting tired of them as well, but already agreed to having them… i wish there were more local farmers too, some of those local “farmers” still use sprays and some of the products i’m not sure are very local… some are really good though, like waterpenny, red hill farm, planet earth diversified, etc… support the locals and as “organic” as possible!!!
yeah, it was the surplus of arts & crafts people that i found most objectionable. but i do not object to pie-bakers at farmers markets, if they’re good. and sweet potatoey.
Well stripe my German, those are some lovely tomatoes.
A couple points to consider here:
1) It is officially called the City Market….making it more universal to any type of local artisan/specialist (farmer or artist) to sell stuff there
2) I definitely agree @14 that the Downtown Mall sells all the jewelry/artisinal products. The one thing I wonder is, is selling on the DM really expensive (permits wise) and is the quality the same. Quantity wise, if you compare the tables of people at the DM vs. the City Market, the DM is packed full of goods….did they make all, if any, of those products? The City Market seems a little more exclusive in that regard.
3) Some of the baked goods are really really good and usually you can’t get them anywhere else. If the bakers do have some kind of retail store, they are usually far away. I know this can’t be the case all the time…but it could be use to setup a regulation for who can participate. This also applies to the cheesemakers. Feast! is terrific and all, but I believe local cheese is cheaper at the market.
4) It is just a tad bit cramped at the City Market…couldn’t that prompt a relocation or an increase of space? For example, they could close off the streets around it…….or make the entire downtown mall a City/Farmers Market on Saturdays. The space in front of the Pavilion is empty at that time anyways and alone is larger than the footprint from the parking lot next to South Street.
5) It would be interesting to find out how many farmers are rejected from the City Market because it is full
6) There are many other “farmers” markets in the area which I will post soon, they might be more farm friendly
@13, while I didn’t go to the market in the Spring, I go to the market in NYC quite often and was surprised that cville could hold a candle to it, taking into consideration this is a teeny tiny city of course. If you check out the Flickr stream the produce looked and SMELLED amazing. Yes I would recommend you go….if it doesn’t meet your benchmark let us know what is lacking!
A. I don’t think they should get rid of the artisans. Customers like them, as evidenced by the thousands of dollars of sales they make.
B. Don’t get rid of the activists. They are what make the place great for pickin’ up hippie chicks.
C. The City Market gets filled literally within minutes. Sometimes within 1 minute.
D. You can’t have City Market anyplace other than a parking lot. It’s just too inconvenient for the merchants. Unless…you have it under the Pavilion and give merchants free parking in the Market Street garage. NO! No! Free parking at Lexis! Yes! There’s the plan.
E. Anything that ends at noon on Saturday is for old people and future old people. Fuck them both. I propose a People Under 35 Market that starts at the crack of noon and ends at dusk with the burning of a giant wood statue of Jefferson.
Beer sales: yes.
White kids with dreads: required.
Socks in Crocks: Go home old man!
@19: I would support E on a weekly basis.
I propose a People Under 35 Market that starts at the crack of noon and ends at dusk
The Satellite Ballroom (PBUH) used did a couple of record and indie-garb things similar to this. Multiple vendors (none with food, though), all under one roof. It was very cool, if, yes, a bit “hipster”-ish or whatever.
@30 Dude, you could never take ecstasy ever week.
I look forward to comment #30.
@20 was what I meant @22
24: Way to activate the fun-sucking machine. But yeah, I know. I was just funnin’ ya. On the internet. For fun.