Local support critical to farmers market

BY JOE BUCK COATES
publisher@copiahmonitor.com

The day that many of us have been waiting for arrives Saturday.  Fresh locally – or at least, Mississippi – grown vegetables will be available for sale at the Copiah County Farmers Market in downtown Hazlehurst, starting this Saturday.  Vendors will also be selling other locally produced staples, such as honey and jams and jellies.    Downtown Hazlehurst will step back in time, once again.

This summer marks the third summer of the local farmers market, originally funded with a $46,000 Farmers Market Promotion program grant in the fall of 2011.  The original grant was written by locals Daphine Foster and Shelley Curtis, who oversaw and built the market for the first two years.
Put the farmers market on your Saturday grocery-run list.  You do not have to get by there every Saturday, but urge your family, friends and neighbors to shop at the farmers market.  Locally grown produce can’t be beat.  Remember when you (and I) were growing up and you picked vegetables in your family’s garden?  The work was hard to get the fresh produce to the dinner table, but you always enjoyed it…Remember?

The third year of any such event is critical, and the vendors and growers and those who put on the market have earned your support.  Stop by and shop at the farmers market this Saturday and as many Saturdays as you can until October!