A first look at the new, $3 million+ Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market

We swung by the new Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago for a few treats and talks while vendors and shoppers mingled for the $3 million+ facility‘s soft opening.

Read on to learn more about when you can visit and what to expect.

Here when there was just an oak tree

Marilyn Champion of Champion Farms in Falkville has the longest residency as a farmer on this corner of First Avenue and Second Street in downtown Decatur.

“I have been coming here since before the market was actually built [in the 1980]. My mother, Anita Williams, and I would peddle from the back of a truck under an oak tree that was right over there. This was a municipal parking lot. A former county commissioner said, ‘You know what? Let’s build a market.’

“When the market was built, we were the first ones who came. I know my mom would love to see this new market. I have a lot of memories. When I got here this morning, I was excited.”
_{Marilyn Champion}

Brisk first-day sales + weather

Champion says sales were great the first day. She’d sold almost 100 buckets of strawberries, nine loaves of bread, two cases of honey, eight tubs of turnip greens and two tubs of kale. Her table was nearly empty, save a few heads of lettuce and about eight jars of preserves. (Highly recommend the strawberry peach.)

Customers kept market regular Anna Hallmark busy, too. Hallmark, who is based in Mount Hope, sells a huge variety of cacti and other succulents. She says being able to use the new structure this season was “a relief” after setting up in a nearby parking lot last year, awaiting its completion.

She says she’d enjoyed being near the stage where Huntsville artist Tomás Gorrio performed songs all morning.

“I like the music and [the market] is nice. It’s been a good day. This is much the same as it used to be, just with more beauty and more comfort for customers.”
_{Anna Hallmark}

Surprising stories + artful finds

Scoop up sumptuous baklava, European breads made with imported butter, slow-cooked homemade pizza sauce, handmade jewelry, framed iris folded paper art and more with a visit to Surprise Garden vendors Russell Harper of Scottsboro and Bulgaria native Yanka Georgieva.

“We are called Surprise Garden because when my wife passed away, I thought I was through gardening. I did away with all of my tools and everything. And surprise, I have a girlfriend who has never lived where she could have a garden, so she’s learning from scratch.

I have 200 plants in my living room right now. I live over on the river above Goose Pond and the whole side of my house is glass. It’s a greenhouse right now!”
_{Russell Harper}

Everything Harper grows in his two gardens is organic except corn, he says. A regular at the Athens Farmers Market, Harper says they appreciate this new facility after having done the Morgan County-Decatur Market two years prior, including the interim year last season.

When you can go

With the soft opening out of the way, the market is now open for regular hours with a grand opening set for Saturday, May 10.

• Where: 211 1st Ave SE, Decatur, AL 35601
• When: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday | 8AM-Noon
• More: Facebook | Website

Eventually, the market site will host other community events during off-hours for the market.

You can sign up for regular updates from the market on the Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market website.

🥬 ICMYI: Here’s our round-up of dates and times for farmers markets in Huntsville and throughout the region.

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