Growing Dreams in Fresh Air

It's a wish of many, put together by a few, to create dreams for a community.

The Port St. Joe SaltAir Farmers' Market - something that so many residents and visitors alike have long been asking for - is about to become a reality.

A preview market was held Dec. 8 during the Christmas on the Coast celebration, to demonstrate what the market planned to offer and to gauge consumers' and city officials' responses.

It was a resounding success.

Now, with the advent of spring and warmer weather, the market is set to open for its inaugural season.

Concrete plans for the farmers' market began last summer, as Port St. Joe residents Amber Davis, controller for Windolf Construction, Inc., and Jodi Perez, chef/owner of Provisions, talked about their experiences with farmers' markets in other communities where they had lived. Since those markets were as much social events as commercial ones, the two women asked themselves, why not in Port St. Joe?

"Looking back, I didn't have a clue," Davis laughed. "I started doing research and making contacts, but I didn't find much local support and usable information."

Her search led her to Waterfronts Florida of Port St. Joe, under whose umbrella she placed the budding entity, and to Dr. Jennifer Taylor, coordinator for the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU)/College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agricultural Statewide Small Farm Programs.

"She was the light bulb, the missing piece of the puzzle," Davis said. "She had all the needed contacts with local farmers and she removed the obstacles of getting the farmers to our market."

Davis said she very quickly realized that this project would not be like anything she had done in the past.

Prior to founding the farmers' market in Port St. Joe, Davis was director of special events and promotion for Tapper and Company in Port St. Joe, and a board member for the Community Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she worked in fundraising and non-profit event planning.

"Planning doesn't work so well with farmers," she laughed. "This project is very much a living entity that branches off the expected path. We have to be flexible and let it grow as it will and trust Jennifer [Taylor].

After the December preview market, Davis and her other board members - Perez, Sandra Chafin, Taylor and Kim Harrison - realized that the fledgling organization was already self-sufficient and no longer required the umbrella of Waterfronts Florida, so they became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation called the Port St. Joe SaltAir Farmers' Market.

They developed a business plan, concentrating on the core concept of a Saturday market, but with other issues branching off of that core.

"We realized that with the economic and social rifts in our community, the project could be a re-connecting factor," Davis said. To that end the board involved 12 different local organizations in the planning and participation of the new market.

As the farmers' market placed itself to open its first season, Davis and Perez named some of the things people could expect to find: area and regional farmers with organic produce, seafood vendors, selected fine artists, cooking demonstrations and food preparation events, occasionally with "celebrity" local chefs, individual local musicians and group entertainers performing.

"There will be variety with each of the markets," Perez said, often through different vendors coming in periodically.

The market board also plans to include exercise demonstrations and the Gulf County Health Department plans occasional healthy ethnic cooking presentations at the market.

"We want it to be very interactive," Davis said. "It won't be the same as going to Walmart. We are trying to reverse the way people think about their food and their relationships with the things they eat."

Perez said the farmers' market is also working on establishing a recycling depot for the community in conjunction with Gulf County Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC), so ARC personnel can earn money through additional recycling efforts.

As a continuing fundraiser for the market, vendors on site will sell market bags, reusable cotton bags for carrying purchases that will take the place of plastic or paper bags in the market.

"Looking around on Saturday mornings, downtown Port St. Joe is a ghost town," Davis said. "We wanted to bring some life back. Lots of people don't fish or boat, so we thought the farmers' market was a great way to give them something to do."

(Next week The Star will cover the long-term goals and extensive community involvement planned through the Port St. Joe SaltAir Farmers' Market.)