Self-sustainable farm life is the dream of many and the humble beginnings of others. Tanya Hire knows farm life in Athens, where she grew up raising cattle and harvesting fruit from the trees on her family’s farm. When she heard Athens Farmers Market was hiring through an ad over the radio, she jumped at the chance to reconnect with her roots.
Nestled into the parking lot of Athens Community Center, located at 701 East State St., every Wednesday and Saturday morning, vendors within 150 miles of uptown show up with their freshly harvested produce and artisan goods.
From 9 a.m. to noon year round, locals and students are invited to check out homemade fudge, sweet maple syrups, ripe fruits and vegetables, most of which are picked the morning of the market.
Hire has been the marketing manager of AFM since early 2020, helping provide Athens locals and students with foodstuffs grown straight out of southeast Ohio.
“When they advertised the position for market manager, I literally got goosebumps,” she said. “I was like, ‘I really want to be part of that organization because it’s such an important resource for the community.’”
Officially established in 1972, a few townsfolk got together, suggesting Athens needed a farmers' market. The market’s founders created rules and regulations for the market, stating all vendors must sell agricultural products grown by themselves – a rule still in effect today.
Out of around 60 total vendors, Ed Perkins is one of AFM’s longest-standing. Along with his wife, Perkins operates Sassafrass Farm, located in New Marshfield, Ohio, where they’ve used organic methods and sold their greens, herbs, berries and jams since the 1970s.
“It’s been a long haul, developing the farm and all,” Perkins said. “But we just kind of grew with the farmers market.”
Summer vegetables, such as squash and cucumber, have just started to become harvestable for Perkins. Their biggest crop year-round is lettuce and their prices are in line with other vendors at the market, which typically shift depending on the season.
Perkins said he tries to keep his crops on the low end to make fresh local produce as attainable as possible.
“I go out to work every day by stepping out the door,” he said. “Work is always there. It’s just our creation. We started the farm and cleared the land, and grew up all the crops. Kind of started everything from scratch.”
Kari Pennington is the owner and baker for Simply Risen Sourdough Co., a recent addition to AFM. Pennington began vending just last year, but her passion for freshly baked sourdough products began several years ago.
“I just started selling a year or so ago to neighbors, and that’s it,” she said, laughing. “I had neighbors that were pushing me like, ‘you need to go big or go home’ ... My sister gave me the starter a long, long time ago and I thought, ‘this is crazy.’”
For three days, Pennington feeds the sourdough starter until it’s ready to bake. She said she bakes around 30 loaves each batch to prepare for the market. Her recommendation is the classic sourdough loaf, which is $9.
In addition, there are inclusion loaves ranging between $9-$12. She also bakes sourdough bagels and English muffins.
Pennington sets up shop twice a week with her two kids, her sister Becca Blackburn and her three kids. She said Blackburn was her biggest cheerleader to get started.
She also said her loyal customers and close relationship with buyers make the job worth it.
“I just can’t be more thankful to my customers, and I have people that come back every week,” She said. “I just love chatting with them. I know what they’re going to get before they pick it up. I didn’t realize I would be that attached to everybody.”
All vendors are different in terms of accepted payment, but most vendors will accept cash, card, food stamp cards and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program EBT. The market is also currently running a matching program to earn credits for fruits and vegetables, and also takes coupons from the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
“You can’t get any fresher unless you were growing it yourself in your backyard,” Hire said. “That allows for you to get the most nutrition that you possibly can because nutrition does decrease over the age of produce.”
Hire wishes she saw more students at the farmer’s market and urges them to check out the Saturday morning markets, when they have more of their vendors present and live music for people to enjoy. She believes it’s worth the early morning wake-up.
“You’re supporting 50 to 60 individual small businesses in the community, and so those dollars stay here,” Hire said. “So economically, we’re recirculating the money here, instead of it going outside of the area … You get to know the people that are raising your produce.”
