Louise Tolbert bites into a cherry tomato and squeals.
“Ooh, I’ve got to have some of these,” she says, pointing to the pints of bite-sized tomatoes stacked in Chris French’s stand at The Landing’s Saturday market. She’s a regular and talks to French as she shops, adding more vegetables to her shopping bag.
“I come every Saturday unless I’m out of town,” she said. “I get fresh peas, tomatoes and fresh peaches.”
Tolbert also shops regularly at Market Days in downtown Columbus, where local vendors sell fresh fruits and vegetables, baked goods and arts and crafts.
“It’s a little different. You’re helping out the community,” she said of market shopping. “I feel like it’s fresher. They let it ripen on the vine more. It’s not shipped.”
Other shoppers and vendors at Columbus’s local weekend markets share Tolbert’s enthusiasm for food that is fresh and local.
Jim and Gayle Huntsinger came from Seale, Ala. to sell their vegetables and local honey.
“It helps with allergies, burns, cuts,” Jim said of the honey. This was their first time selling at The Landings’ market, he said, but they had been to other markets before.
“The fresh produce is sometimes cheaper than at the grocery,” he said. “It’s quality food if you can get it.”
For those new to the market, most vendors recommend bringing cash, though a few will accept checks. Most also recommend coming early, before the heat sets in and vendors begin to sell out of popular items.
“Come early and look around. They sell out of a lot of things really quickly. Experience it all, take it all in,” said Beverly Bridges, who sells homemade European-style breads and crackers at a booth for Rose Cottage Bakery and Cafe at the market in downtown Columbus.
Both markets also feature arts and crafts vendors selling unique creations. Last Saturday, Whitney Scarborough was selling handmade clay jewelry and jewelry bags, but she’s also shopped the markets before, she said.
“There’s a lot of creative vendors. You’re buying from local people, rather than a retailer,” she said.
Some of the merchandise combinations might seem little odd. LaSean Spencer is proud of her strawberry cream pie, made from an old family recipe. She also started making felt puppets as a craft project for her daughter. She put the two together for her Market Days booth, Puppets and Pie. By 10 a.m. last Saturday, she’d sold out of the puppets, but still had some pie samples left.
“It’s very unique,” she said of the market. “The vegetables are fresh, the bread’s just been baked. There’s a big variety of things. And it’s social. It’s a community as well.”
At the Landings Market, French tells customers what’s fresh and passes out a plate of cherry tomatoes to try. He’s selling for Georgia’s Finest, a organic farm out of Waverly Hall.
“Everything you see here, we picked yesterday,” he said. He and Tolbert talk tomatoes while she shops.
“I’m a tomato freak,” he tells her. “I’m not a fan of a monster slicer. I just eat them, right then.” He brags about his okra --“I’ve got 80- and 90-year-old customers who about faint when they taste it,” -- so she buys some of that, too.
“I like to make friends with the people selling,” Tolbert says later.
Ashley Rodgers, an organic farm manager for White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga., likes working small and local, and talking to customers about the food she helps grow. After a customer tells her that the peppers she sold her last week were hot instead of sweet, Rodgers tastes the peppers at her stand until she finds the right ones.
Organic produce tastes better, she says. If it’s local produce, there’s a shorter trip from the garden to the table, and customers can get to know the farmer.
“This is awesome. I know it’s awesome because I picked it. I picked everything here,” she says, gesturing to a table full of eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. “Supporting the people who physically grow what people eat means the local farms are still living.”
Sara Pauff, can be reached at 706-320-4469
