Recycle, reuse and repurpose at the Farmers Market

You can help the Fernandina Beach Market Place vendors recycle, reuse, or repurpose common items. The popular farmers market, located in historic Fernandina Beach, encourages customers to bring their own reusable shopping bags, insulated bags, or rolling bags or coolers when you shop on Saturday mornings at the Market Place. Cutting down on the use of plastic bags is the best way to reduce the number that may find their way back to our oceans, rivers, and streams.

Another great way to help the vendors reuse products is to return those Mason jars that were once used for jams, jellies, pickles, or vinegar to the vendors. Not all vendors will accept their old jars, but those who welcome their return are Steephill Design, our maple syrup vendor; Butthead Farms, who brings goat milk, goat cheeses, and flavored vinegars to the farmers market; and the Garlic Man of Carter Homestead Farms, who brings balsamic garlic vinegar, fresh garlic, teas, and mushrooms to the market, when in season.

Bacons Select Produce, Butthead Farms, and the Boatright Family Farm are looking for egg cartons. All three of these vendors bring a limited number of yard eggs to the farmers market and will happily accept and reuse your egg cartons. Let’s work together to get multiple uses from what would otherwise be waste for our landfills.

Other vendors are working to cut back on waste, too. Vegan Amelia may look like they are serving in plastic containers, but look again, those containers are compostable! So are the paper boxes from sweets bakeries Breakable Hearts and Chubby Cakes. Many of our vendors will ask if you want paper or plastic, and some will ask if you want any bag at all. The salsas, dips, and guacamole containers from King of All Guacamoles can be washed and reused several times over in your home for leftovers, lunches, or snacks. Seven Trees Nursery will take back those plastic plant containers and hanging baskets to replant young starter plants for next season’s markets. These tips and tactics may not sound like much, but if we all pitch in, we can make a small difference in our own hometown.

The Fernandina Beach Market Place farmers market is open every Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, on North Seventh Street, rain or shine. Our Wildlight Market Place is open on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month, also from 9 – 1, and is located just east of Interstate 95 in the new Wildlight Community. For your shopping convenience, the Fernandina Beach Arts Market will be open adjacent to the Fernandina Beach Market Place on the last three Saturdays of November and the first three Saturdays in December. There will be no markets open on Christmas or New Year’s Day, which both fall on Saturdays this year.

For more information, stop by the management booth at any of our markets.