JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Shoppers can buy fresh zucchini at the Pearisburg farmers market

| Amy Matzke-Fawcett

amy.matzke-fawcett@roanoke.com, 381-1674

PEARISBURG -- Another farmers market will soon open in the New River Valley, this one in downtown Pearisburg.

The newest market is scheduled to open at 2 p.m. July 16 on Wenonah Avenue.

"It's something we've talked about off and on for several years," said Pearisburg Town Manager Ken Vittum. "It's a good idea because people want a farmers market, and farmers have things to sell.

"We just need to match them up."

That's where Giovanni Guarini and Nancy Jurek of The Bank restaurant come in. An informal farmers market sprang up outside the restaurant on Fridays with a few vendors selling what produce they had, including zucchini, greens and garlic.

Last Friday, Nick Kaplan brought produce from his Giles County farm, Wolf Mountain Sustainable Homestead, and sold it out of the back of his truck.

Kaplan provides organic produce for The Bank twice a week. Being part of a farmers market helps spread the word about his farm, he said.

Kaplan said he's often asked why he doesn't move to other communities more widely thought of as organic, farmers market centers, such as Floyd.

"I think other areas are saturated with homesteaders, but Giles is still wide open," he said. "I think there's a consciousness forming about organic food, especially in Giles."

Guarini said he would like all the Pearisburg farmers market products to be organic. The exact setup is still in the works, including what regulations, if any, will be placed on vendors.

For now, the market will start in a temporary location in an unnamed parking lot off Wenonah Avenue next to a shoe repair shop.

Town officials had talked about putting the market in the newly renovated community building in the Pearisburg Town Park, Vittum said, but that took it out of the more-traveled downtown area.

Building a sense of community for sellers and buyers was the idea behind the Shawsville Farmers Market, said Meredith Novak, market coordinator.

The market began in 2008 at the Meadowbrook Center, with local vendors setting up each Saturday morning and during special events.

"We wanted to have another service, another feature in the little community that would make people not have to go 20 minutes in either direction to buy produce," Novak said. "We also want to build a sustainable community for local artists and farmers."

Although the market's hours have changed from every Saturday to the first and third Thursday afternoons each month -- resolving conflicts with other markets and events on Saturdays -- the premise remains the same, Novak said. Vendors set up a tent outside the Meadowbrook Center on Allegheny Spring Road and sell local products from duck eggs to spices to produce to soap.

There's no vendor fee to set up, and vendors aren't required to be at every market.

"It's a very informal market," Novak said. "We're really just trying to get something going."

Flexibility has also been key to the Narrows Farmers Market, its organizers say.

The town completed a $520,000 open pavilion market structure in 2005 that offers eight covered stalls for vendors and public bathrooms.

It was designated as a farmers market, but has seen less activity than expected. Because of that, the structure has been opened for other activities, such as private-party rentals, fundraisers, a car cruise-in once a month and a weekly Saturday yard sale and flea market, said Jessie Parsell, market coordinator.

"I think a lot of it is that we're not located on [U.S.] 460," Parsell said. Customers must cross the bridge into Narrows to reach the downtown area, where the market is located.

There are two regular vendors on Thursdays who sell produce and baked goods and other vendors rent stalls randomly, Parsell said.

She said she also thinks many people in the area grow produce for themselves and any leftovers are given away or sold by putting a sign in their yards.

"I don't know that I would load up a truck and sell a couple of bushels of tomatoes at the farmers market if that was all I had, either," she said.

New markets have also popped up in Floyd this year; the farmers market on Saturdays and the Artisan Market on Friday nights. All the foods in the Floyd Farmers Market must be from Floyd or the adjacent counties, said Mike Burton, director of Sustain Floyd, the organization behind the markets.