Brookhaven Farmers Market- Starts this Saturday!

The Brookhaven Farmers Market is opening this Saturday, May 5th! We attended this many weekends last year and enjoyed the likes of High Road Creamery, West Wind Farms, and other local vendors.

This year, opening day vendors include: Double B Farms (new!), Phoenix Gardens, Dillwood Farms, Harvest Moon, and Noring Farms. There will also be Watsonia Farms (organic fruit),  along with other newbies Dunwoody Honey, Mo' Mint & Thyme, Darby Farms, Happy Hogs, and One Screw Loose (love all these names!). Other activities include Chef Matt Swickerath (of the award winning Valenza Restaurant) will be demonstrating how to make fresh mozzarella cheese at 11am. 

The market also welcomes back Sweet Tea Factory, West Wind Farms, Mad Mama's Gourmet, High Road Craft Ice Cream, King of Pops, 2 Fun-Guys Mushroom Logs, The Cheese Course and Monica's Handmade Bath and Body.

For a full description of the Market, please visit read the market newsletter.

Brookhaven Farmer's Market Vs. Brookhaven Farmer's Market

And the winner is... The Brookhaven Farmer's Market.

This has been a confusing time for us all, so let's shed some light on what happened and what is going forward.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, the new Saturday Brookhaven Farmer's Market (aka Chamblee Farmer's Market relocated- see photo left) has been very successful. Each week new vendors and customers are taking part in supporting local produce, food, arts, and crafts. Cory and I enjoyed our first trip to the market for their inaugural event a few weeks ago in July. Now, we had previously blogged about the "other" Sunday Brookhaven Farmer's Market (same name, different market), sponsored by a local doctor's office, that didn't fare quite as well in our book. Not as great location, timing, frequency, or selection, we weren't too impressed with this market. 

Now, some news: I received an email last week from the sponsors of that event thanking everyone for their support, and conceding defeat to the "new" Brookhaven Farmers Market (surprised?). Instead, they are hoping to start something this Fall called Sunday Lunch: "This would be an early afternoon event and will allow vendors to offer their goods as well as a family get together. It’s a trend that is popping up all over the country."

We will keep you posted about this Sunday Lunch idea (sounds like an afternoon market to me...). It is intriguing and I'm glad to see instead of competing, the other market is going in a different direction to provide ultimate benefit to residents. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Brookhaven Farmers Market every Saturday from 9am-1pm behind Haven/Valenza. I recommend you walk over there if you can, with your reusable bags, because parking is limited and walking is encouraged. 

A New (Better?) Brookhaven Farmers Market

After our somewhat disappointing experience with the Brookhaven Farmers Market a few weeks ago, we are cautiously optimistic about the the NEW Brookhaven Farmers Market. Hosted by the organizers of the Chamblee Farmer Market (in fact, this is the Chamblee one, just a new locale), this one has a better time- Every Saturday from 9:00am - 1:00pm and a better location: 1441 Dresden Drive, Atlanta, GA 30319 (Behind Haven) 

This Saturday, July 16th, will be the debut of this Brookhaven (formerly Chamblee) Farmers Market. Their website mentions (at least) 18 farmers, food producers and local artisans at the market:

• Phoenix Gardens - A local grower based in Lawrenceville, Georgia who is committed to growing produce in a naturally sustainable manner. Dairy, beef, and pork available via special order.
• Tewksbury Farms - A farm based out of Buckhead, Georgia providing sustainable produce.
• West Wind Farms - A farm based out of Morgan County, Tennessee that provides organic, grass-fed meats and dairy products.
• Hidden Springs Honey - Raw honey out of Williamson, Georgia.
• Cupid’s Pantry - A boutique food producer specializing in baking, batter, sauce, and dip mixes.
• Mad Mama - fresh and delicious artisanal offerings such as Avocado Lime Soup, Egyptian Hummus, Mad Mama’s White Cheddar Pimento Cheese, rustic San Marzano Tomato Soup. and many more!
• Jenny's Pies - individually packaged home made pie slices and full size pies, Cherry, Toll-House! and more (coming back in August)
• Fat Lady Baker -Fat Lady Baker is well known in the local farmer’s market scene and we are thrilled to offer Nancy’s incredibly fresh baked goods to you. Fat Lady Baker specializes in whole grain, organic, and vegan breads. She grinds all of the wheat just prior to mixing. Fat Lady Baker is best known for the wonderful Ezekiel seed bread, honey whole wheat, and kamut blueberry muffins.
• Madeline Burdine - beautiful handmade bone jewelry similar to carved ivory
• 2 Fun-guys - Everything You Need to Grow Mushrooms on Logs
• Noring Farms - Located in Conyers, Noring Farms specializes in heirloom tomatoes, exotic varietals, free range eggs, and homemade unique treats. (Their slow cooked marinara sauce made with their heirloom tomatoes is fabulous!)
• Nona Rosa’s Pizelles - Offers hand-made Italian cookies called Pizzelles which come in number of flavors and patterns.
• Juliette’s Bakery
• Bake Shop
• Uncle Davey’s Toffee
• Trout Man
• Dillwood Farms
• David Jeffries Kitchen 

If you are interested in joining this list of vendors- fill out a Vendor Application to be considered. If you want to be involved and help volunteer, they also have a Volunteer Application available online.

Will will be sure to check this one out at it seems to boast a good number of unique vendors- stay tuned for our take on this one!

Brookhaven Farmers Market

This weekend Cory and I attended the first ever Brookhaven Farmers Market! Finally... I mean, if the antique junkees in Chamblee can do it, Brookhaven can do it (no offense Chamblee readers)!!! We were so excited when we heard about it Sunday morning- Cory was checking twitter, and one of our Atlanta favorites King of Pops mentioned that he was at the "Brookhaven Farmers Market" right down the street. So we threw on our walking shoes and headed down Apple Valley to check it out.  

We were a little wary at first, just because we hadn't heard or seen anything about it, but hey- if King of Pops was there, it had to be legit, right? There have been a ton of farmers markets popping up lately and practically every area has one now (or has a CSA or Farm Mobile) so I'm excited that Brookhaven jumped on the bandwagon. I just love the idea of farm to table veggies, cheese, and freshly made food plus we enjoy supporting local farmers.

At first glance, we were a little disappointed in the market (photo above). It was in a decent location, but really tough to see from the main street. The market was in the Parkside complex located right at the intersection of Apple Valley and Dresden (near the Brookhaven MARTA) but behind an office building in the parking lot. There were about 12-15 vendors and being there early in the morning (~10am), we were really craving some fresh baked bread or pastries for breakfast or maybe some grab and go fruit. Instead there was cheese, jelly, soaps, cup cakes, cookies, jewelry, and frozen lemonade. Nothing we were really in the market for this particular Sunday.

We did like seeing some local Brookhaven businesses with the other vendors including the newest Town Brookhaven restaurant The Cup and also the Brookhaven Bistro (which we still need to try). And of course last, but not least, King of Pops! Since he was the one that advertised the market, we made sure to pick up an Arnold Palmer (sweet tea and lemonade) pop as we walked the pup home.

Overall we were a little disappointed at the lack of assortment, but I can only hope there will be more for their next try. We appreciate the fact that it's on Sunday and not competing with other farmers markets in the area, but I think a little more outreach and marketing needs to be done to get more people to come (we didn't even hear about it until the day of... shame on us!). Of course we will continue to support it and look forward to the vendors they have next month.  If you didn't make it this weekend- you can check it out July 31st and August 28 from 9:00am to 1:00pm. On their flyer I picked up, they also advertised chef demonstrations and bluegrass music, but I'm not sure what time that starts. Even though vendors may have been a bit lacking, this is great for our neighborhood and were excited to see a push for more local in Brookhaven.

Farm Mobile

"We stop, You shop." is the motto of the new(ish) local mobile farmers market: Farm Mobile. What a great concept: they bring the farm fresh local food to you! Inside, shoppers choose from shelves stocked with organic locally grown produce, free-range eggs, breads from H&F Bread Co., homemade grits, polenta, and cornmeal, and sustainable meats. Other regular items on board include cheese from local food artisans, grassfed beef and Berkshire pork, and whole pasture-raised chickens.

Our friend, Stacy from StacyEats introduced us to Farm Mobile last week. And this week we decided to walk with our pups over to the Tuesday night stop in their neighborhood off Clairmont Road in the Brookhaven/Chamblee area.

It's a pretty neat concept, and Cory and I enjoyed walking through the bus/van and oogling all of the goodies (see photo below for full list). We ended up selecting some free-range eggs and homemade pork and ginger dumplings.  I really wanted to try the homemade meatballs too, but they were all out!  The place is a little pricey- but you pay for quality and sustainability, right? Support local! The eggs were $6 for a dozen and the dumplings were $7 for 20. Be advised to bring cash or check, as they don't accept credit cards!

Click here for this week's Farm Mobile schedule!

Regular weekly stops include:
Monday 2-4p at Sprig in Oak Grove
Thursday 4-6p at The Midway Pub in East Atlanta
Saturday 9a-noon at Holeman & Finch in Buckhead

The remainder of their schedule changes every week. Subscribe to their emails and follow them on Twitter for updates.

Atlanta Underground Market- Update!

Just received an email from Atlanta Underground Market with some important information if you're interested in attending.

To recap- The Atlanta Underground Market will be held on Saturday, February 25. The location is secret, and you must sign-up to receive instructions (will be emailed out 24 hours prior to the event)

Almost 1500 people and 40 vendors have signed up to participate in this event! The event will be held indoors, and it is a completely private event- each individual must sign up to attend. If you plan to bring a guest, please make sure they sign up beforehand. Each name and corresponding email address will be checked at the door.

There will be a $2 entrance fee, along with a $1 - $5 per plate cost from each vendor. So make sure to bring some cash!

There will be two remaining emails- one a week before the event (this weekend) and another a day before the event.

See you there!

Atlanta Underground Market

I recently received an email from UrbanDaddy discussing a secret farmers market that is coming to Atlanta this month called Atlanta Underground Market. A gathering of over 40 "drool-worthy" food vendors in an undisclosed location, is now taking reservations for its inaugural event on Saturday, February 26 from 6-9pm. Sign up to receive further instructions on where exactly the location will be. Directions will be massively emailed out exactly 24 hours before the market starts. All we know is the market will be held somewhere in downtown Atlanta. Sounds exciting!

Check out more from the website.