Locals of Athens or people just passing through can hear the buzz of vendors on Saturday mornings at 701 E. State St. With everything from fresh vegetables coming from nearby farms to warm baked bread, beautiful hand-picked flowers and smooth coffee for gentle wake-up, attendees of the Athens Farmers Market all agree: they love it here.
Athens Farmers Market can be found from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday morning from April to November. During the winter months, Dec. 3 through March 25, the vendors can be found inside the Athens Community Center. According to the Athens Farmers Market website, the market was voted the best farmers market in Ohio as well as 10th in the Midwest and 35th ranked nationally.
Nicole Melport, an Athens Farmers Market vendor, said this is the third year they have been selling produce at the market.
They said their favorite aspect of the market was the community that came with it and how happy people were to spend time there on a Saturday morning.
“It’s a little community,” they said. “It’s the same people and new people every week. It’s just getting out and being a part of the community.
They said they were able to sell a little bit of everything in terms of produce. Selling flowers, however, was something they had just started doing this year.
Melport said they think farmers markets are essential to have in order to sustain the local food economy.
“I think we all experienced that during the pandemic about how important it is to have a local food economy,” they said.
Beth Weingroff, a potter for Sledding Hill Pottery, said she has been selling her art at the market for close to six or seven years.
She said she was originally a member of the Athens Art Guild and after some experimentation with making pots, she decided to sell her work in the public sphere and the farmers market was the perfect place to do so.
“I love being out in the community with my pottery,” she said. “I have met so many wonderful people in Athens and the surrounding communities that come to the market.”
Weingroff said she loves being able to converse with the people of Athens and have the opportunity to make sure her art ends up in good homes.
“I love chatting with people,” she said. “I feel like I’m a representative of Athens, as all the artisan farmer vendors are. I love the opportunity to just have conversations with all kinds of people and also to sell my pottery so they go to good homes. People appreciate the work.”
Bonnie Blevens, a freshman studying psychology, said it was her first time attending the farmers market but that she really enjoyed the atmosphere.
She said she really enjoyed the man playing music and that she was able to get him to play a song by the Beach Boys.
Blevens said that she would totally love to be able to come to the farmers market again because of how much she enjoyed her experience. She said she has a farmer’s market in her home town which she really enjoys so she was happy to be able to find something similar in Athens.
“I would definitely come again,” she said. “ The atmosphere here is really bright and the community is super radiating. You can just feel the togetherness everywhere and it’s just super positive. I love it here.”
