Union County Farmers Market

The Union County Farmers Market is looking forward to Saturday, July 31st and being the center of attention at the 1st Annual Green Bean Festival. Well, at least we'll be centrally located – as we will be positioned around the Old Historic Courthouse. And we will be there all day, featuring our growers and our crafters and their wonderful products.

Those of you who love to cook and can, please enter the Festival's competitions. For more information and entry forms visit www.GreenBeanFestival.com . Those of you that want to just enjoy a good old fashioned festival featuring a Kids talent competition and beauty pageant, green bean pizza eating contests, and so much more – please join us for a wonderful weekend in the heart of our city……

Thank you for visiting our online guide to the Union County Farmer’s Market. If you haven’t attended our Farmers Market in the past, you have a real treat in store for you when you join us this year. We open our 2010 season on Saturday June 26th and we’ll be here every Saturday and Wednesday through Oct. 16th.

We are located at the Union County Courthouse. We will be moving to our new location on Old Smokey Road near Home Depot in Blairsville, Georgia as soon as possible. Please note that the hours for the market have changed. Growers and artisans will sell their goods from 7:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. (or until they plum run out of goods to sell, whichever comes first!).

Now, if you haven’t already done so, you may want to click that little player bar (near the top right of this page) to turn on the music. It will set the mood as you peruse our site. The song is “The Garden Song” and it’s recorded by a wonderful group of local musicians called Butternut Creek and Friends. You can read more about them on the About Us & Links Page.

“Local” is everything to us here at the Farmers Market. Did you recognize the farmer in the top banner, holding the corn and smiling over the fence at you? That’s a caricature of Byron Herbert Reece, one of Union County’s most famous farmers. Born in 1917, “Hub”, as he was nicknamed by his family, was raised on a farm, and later managed the land when his parents took ill. While he worked the plow he conceptualized the themes for his many poems and writings. In 1950, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his second published collection of poetry “Bow Down To Jericho”. It just seems fitting that this native son should represent both the local growers and the local artisans that produce the wonderful goods featured for sale every Saturday morning for these 4 months.

Union County takes pride in our agricultural roots. In 2007, County Commissioner Lamar Paris organized a committee to oversee the development of a local market that would give our growers, big and small, a place to sell their goods. It was decided that artisans, beekeepers to bakers and potters to painters, could also sell their handmade goods. So when we boast “Homegrown and Handmade”, you know that you are purchasing products that have been produced right here in this area!

See those seed packets up on top of the page? They will navigate you through our site. You are currently on the home page, where you will find the latest market news we have to share, as well as an update on the crops that you can expect to see at the market each week. This information sure comes in handy when you are trying to prepare your canning, jelly making and cobbler baking schedule. We also have included the local weather – just so you know what to expect the day of the market. We’ll be there rain or shine!

Next you should navigate over to our Meet & Mingle page. This is your opportunity to share with us your impressions of the market, a funny tidbit, a shout out to your friends to join you, or helpful hints for processing your purchased goods. You can also submit pictures to be posted on this page. One of our reporters will be blogging each week on the “Meet and Mingle” Blog, so check back often. You won’t want to miss a single blog!

The growers and artisans that sell at the market are remarkable folks. We want you to meet some of them and hear their story. You will find new interviews every couple weeks. We also provide a list of the participating growers & artisans with their contact information - just in case you can’t wait till Saturday market to get your bushel of corn or a special handcrafted gift.

There are those times that we just can’t believe how beautiful those beans look and we somehow find ourselves with a bushel of them. How many different ways can you fix beans? What do you do with a 10 pound cabbage? Check out our Recipe Page! Every week we will have recipes that compliment the current seasonal bounty of fruits and vegetables. We also archive the recipes so you will be able to find them again, when you really need them.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – and we believe that capturing the many happy faces of all that attend the market speaks volumes for this community. So, check out our Photo Gallery and see who was at the market last week.

We’d like to share with you a little more about the folks behind the scenes that make the Farmers Market possible. If you click to our About Us & Links page, you’ll find a myriad of information, as well as contact information for the powers that be.

We hope you’ll visit our site often. Until we meet again on Saturday….have a great day!