Fluvanna Farmers Market: Offering a lot more than Fresh Produce

The Fluvanna Farmers Market held in front of Ace Hardware is a fantastic Sunday morning adventure from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.. The event includes a variety of vendors, live music that changes weekly, and children’s games. (Although children’s games were advertised, they were not available when I showed up.) 

At this farmers market, many of the vendors did not offer much fresh produce, but did offer clothing, jewelry, baked goods, barbeque, wooden dining goods, and hemp related goods. 

The one vendor that offered fresh produce was called Crickhollow Farm.  At first glance, I thought the stand only offered peppers because the table was packed with a colorful variety of fresh peppers. I then glanced over at the menu, which showed that meat and veggies were also available, but not within eyesight. Prices at this stand ranged from $3 to $13. 

Clothing was available at the Peach Pie vendor. This stand mostly sold aprons, baby clothing, and market bags (which made sense after perusing their Facebook page). According to their business card, Peach Pie clothing is “created from second life material-drapes, tablecloths and other estate sale finds.” The clothing was often one solid pattern, maybe two, and many of the bags were double sided (meaning the user can flip the bag inside out and it will work as it did before).

Southern Winds offered many different jewelry options, many of them seasonal and contributing to a fantastic spooky feeling I fell for. I ended up purchasing two pairs of earrings for $12 each. Both pairs of earrings had QR codes attached to the back for customers to scan and use to find products. I had trouble scanning the codes, but I was able to find goods on the Facebook page. 

Baked goods were available at two separate stands. One stand was called Viva la nosh and offered breads, biscottis, bagels, and macarons. All prices ranged from $2.50 to $10. The second stand had two vendors, Susanna’s Goody Bag and Nana’s Country Kitchen. Both “Nana” and Susanna seemed to be working together to sell their products. They talked me into buying an Apple Streusel Coffee Cake for $4.50. The cake was soft, sweet, and moist with a dry yet still sweet crumble topping that pulled it together very nicely. Their prices ranged from $3.50 to $10. 

Meat Wagon BBQ LLC made Barbeque available to customers. Both hot food to eat at the farmers market and chilled food to bring home and heat up were available. There was a BBQ sandwich with coleslaw for $7 and a BBQ Bowl for $9 available to be eaten at the event. The to-go menu had many different items on it, many related to barbeque, with just a few outliers. All their prices ranged from $5 to $26. 

GES Turning showed off an array of different wooden bowls, cups, and decorations. I did not look at many of the prices because they were located on the bottom of the products. I did come across a small red wooden cup that caught my eye, and it was priced at $60.  

Lastly, two stands were set up towards the back of the farmers market with CBD and hemp being advertised. The first stand I walked up to was Way West Wellness, which only offered three products: CBD Pain Roll-on ($39, for muscle pains and aches), Hemp Seed Oil ($15, often used for cooking), and CBD oil for pets. On their website, they offer a full background on the science behind what they make and offer a larger variety of products that can be shipped to a customer’s home.

The second stand offered a wide range of CBD and hemp products that were both confusing and intriguing. The vendor didn’t seem to only be selling one brand of product, but multiple. A few brands presented included Full Spectrum Hemp Honey, Panashe, and Mount Zion. This stand offered a variety of different edible and smokable CBD products but not many visible or solid prices. 

Overall, the farmers market held my full attention for over an hour and kept me wishing I had stuffed a few more dollars in my wallet. 

For those looking to get involved in the event, Scott Murdoch can be contacted at sagm@aol.com for music reservations. Peggy Shaglin at peggyshaglin@hotmail.com (434-962-2762) or Cat Gardner at cat@twolabscoffee.com (703-926-3699) can be contacted for booking a lot.