BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Jackson’s Building Supply employee has started a Saturday farmer’s market at his employer’s empty lot.
Eric Noegel said he started selling some of his own eggs at the store and wanted to build more community in his hometown.
He added that he saw a shortage of opportunities for local farmers and craftsmen to sell their products.
“So, I’m like, well shoot, we got all that land out there we’re doing nothing with,” he said of the lumber yard, “and what would be nice for Starke is to have a little farmer’s market because there ain’t one.”
Noegel said he is restricting the market to locally produced goods, except for a clearance table with Jackson Building Supply aged inventory.
He added that he scouted out two other farmer’s markets while planning his own, the Alachua County market and one in Gainesville’s Haile Plantation area.
“What we’d probably have here is more like Alachua County, the way they do theirs, which is right by the fire station on U.S. 441,” he said. “And what I’d like to do is just get some good, quality food and handmade stuff here that people can sell.”
Noegel said what he wants to avoid is a garage-sale atmosphere.
“I think we can handle up to 15 vendors, but we want to do it the right way,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re not having just yard sales out here. It’s not going to be that type of environment.”
Noegel said Janis and Philip McDonald’s River Branch Farm sells produce at his market. The family also runs a plumbing company in Starke and has a vegetable stand in the New River area.
Noegel said that in addition to River Branch Farms, Townsend Honey, Peggy’s Baked Goods, and Hometown Grounds Coffee set up shop in the lumber yard. Lamar Wynn sold eggs and mixed barnyard chicks.
The inaugural event was on April 6. The next day for the farmer’s market is May 4.
