The Forsyth Farmers’ Market roared back to life on Saturday.
The market had gone on break just before Christmas, but there seems to be a broad consensus that it will be a year-round affair from now on.
The short hiatus revealed just how indispensable the market had become for chefs and restaurants that rely on locally grown produce, so an abbreviated version of the market continued through December in the small parking lot at Café Florie on Barnard Street.
Kristin Russell, co-owner of The Sentient Bean, wrote a guest post last week for The Creative Coast’s blog in which she considered the supply chain disruption of recent weeks.
“The five-week interruption in the Bean’s produce supply and its associated costs have caused me to think deeply about how I can minimize the impact of future interruptions,” wrote Russell. “Our supply chain is heavily dependent on communication and personal relationships. This flies in the face of trends to plan, order, track and market with more scans, QR codes, RFIDs and fewer humans.
“I now realize that the Farmers’ Market serves as a place where a lot of information gets shared and I had no backup plan without it.”
And it wasn’t just business owners like Russell who missed the market during its break.
Many local farmers and other vendors have products to sell straight through the winter, and an increasing number of residents have adopted diets heavily reliant on locally sourced food.
Eager to meet this demand, 25 vendors set up shop at last Saturday’s market, despite some pretty chilly temperatures for us fragile Savannahians.
By the time I got to Forsyth Park about 11 a.m., the farmers’ market was bustling with activity.
And the bustle went far beyond sales. As Russell noted in her blog post, the Forsyth Farmers’ Market has become a vital gathering point at which a wide variety of information is shared and at which community is forged.
The market seems to serve an especially important social role for the growing number of young families who live near the park.
I wasn’t shopping for vegetables on Saturday, but I bought eggs from Flatland Farm in Sylvania, ground beef from Hunter Cattle Company in Brooklet and a loaf of bread from Café Florie.
I spent more money than I would have spent on eggs, bread and beef at a supermarket, but comparisons are difficult given the quality and freshness of products straight off the farm or right out of the oven.
The Forsyth Farmers’ Market takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday at the south end of the park.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net and http://www.billdawers.com. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.