Helen H.
Yelp
This farmers market is located in the same shopping complex as kitcho, loft pursuits, the seafood market, etc. across thomasville rd from trader joes basically. It is most popular and busy saturday morning from 8-3ish it seems. Plenty of parking for free, its in the covered overhead shady open area in the middle of this shopping complex which is nice in the hot florida summer weather. There are about 2 handful of vendors/sellers. Oh, and they all give plastic shopping bags so if you forget your reusable bag at home don't worry. Majority of them sell the same seasonal fruits and vegetables all around the same price (ex: almost everyone was selling vidalia onion for $1 and garlic for $2). Im not sure if everything at this market was organic and local though because they said one kind of peaches they had were from georgia. They have some local and organic stuff for sure though from one of the local farms. They also had some local cheese, soap, honey, etc. which was nice to see something local and unique/made coming to the farmers market worth it. I think the main thing I liked it that like all farmers market, everything is cheap and just as good quality as in the grocery store and sometimes in even larger quantity (ex: 4-5 sweet potatoes were around $2.50 at one stall).
Overall, this is how I see it for me:
Pros:
1. Cheap, good quality, sometimes large quantity to.
2. Some unique local stuff like honey, cheese, etc.
3. Small so you can shop and be done in 15-20 minutes.
4. The farmers/vendor sellers are really nice and helpful.
5. It is pet friendly (we saw a couple of cute dogs sat. morning ^-^)
Cons:
1. Far drive for me (30 minutes just to buy veggies and fruits)
2. Not a lot of variety or unique fruits and veggies (everyone sells the same things).
3. Wish there were more unique items - you go to the farmers market to buy and try stuff that you can't find at the supermarket but they didn't have anything that you can't buy at the grocery store or local farm at your own convenient time.
4. Why was there like only one stall selling hot food? Usually there are a lot of stalls selling something you can get for a quick lunch or snack but there was only one stall selling some type of cooked meat but I was looking for something more light :(
5. Im use to the bigger farmers markets in Miami so this one can be kind of boring compared to the large variety and unique items you find in coconut grove and pine crest farmers markets. I wish Tallahassee could have a bigger farmers market.
6. Im pretty sure not everything is organic/local which is sad because the one reason people go to farmers markets is to buy local organic items (but I could be wrong which is why I put this last- I will double check next time I go). Reason why I don't think this is because I bought a few items with stickers saying "product of mexico". lol.
7. INSPECT THE FOOD YOU BUY CAREFULLY, I JUST OPENED ONE OF THE SWEET POTATOES I BOUGHT AND FOUND 2 WORMS IN IT (EW!)
It is a decent farmers market considering its in tallahassee and i don't expect much from anything in tallahassee but its good enough where I would go back occasionally, but not regularly. Its not at a convenient time, location, and not enough reasons (like having something I can get only at the farmers market and no other time) for me to go all the time. The only reasons I truly like it is because its cheap but idk if its cheap enough including gas money where I really save that much money a week on fruits and veggies and to go out of my way every saturday morning.
For others though that are usually up saturday morning, live in the killearn area, or don't mind driving across town if you live on the college side like I do, def check this place out. Its worth the drive at least once.