CANTON, N.C. — Farmers markets are popping up all throughout the state now that spring has officially sprung.
For Canton, springtime hasn’t meant the opening of a farmers market for some time. The city hasn’t had one for the last several years, but that changes this year.
Kelly Lovejoy is one of Smathers Farmers and Public Market’s first-ever vendors. She and her husband decided to move to the mountains six years ago after spending more than 20 years in Columbia, South Carolina.
“We were looking for something with four seasons,” Lovejoy said. “I love it up here, the weather's gorgeous, it's conducive to so much gardening.”
She said Canton is a little bit of heaven for her. On her farm, Far Flung Farm, she raises chickens and turkeys. She grows perennial herbs, vegetables, fruits and flowers.
“We have dahlias, celosia, lavender, snapdragons,” Lovejoy said.
It’s a lot of work maintaining the farm. When she and her husband retired, they took on farm life full time and they love it.
“There’s something going on every day at a farm,” Lovejoy said.
Lovejoy said leaving the farm is hard to do, with everything she needs right there in her yard. But she’s active in local gardening clubs and spends a lot of time volunteering. Now, she’s involved with the new farmers market.
“We are thrilled to be at the market and to have the market here in Canton,” Lovejoy said.
She said they hadn’t had a market since she moved there.
It’s been years since the last one failed.
“This is Pat's vision, and it's to liven up downtown Canton again and make this an event,” Lovejoy said. “He wants this to be an event where the whole community is involved.”
It’s the community that gave seventh-generation Pat Smathers the idea to start the market. His goal is to revitalize the city and help Canton make a comeback.
It’s often just referred to as the “stinky paper mill town”. But to Smathers, it’s so much more than just that. It’s where he was raised and several generations of his family live.
“A lot of farmers markets are nonprofit organizations and being this is not a nonprofit organization, we're gonna do it from a private enterprise aspect with the goal of making it very much a community-minded market,” Smathers said.
The market will be downtown in Smathers Square at what used to be Smathers Supermarket decades ago, a grocery store owned by Smathers’ father and uncle.
“I’m excited about it,” Smathers said. “When I thought about the need for something like this for a long time, but it's just having the right people to work with and to move forward with it.”
It’s people like Lovejoy and the several other vendors that are helping make this thing happen. Lovejoy will sell herbs, flowers, fresh farm eggs, fruits and veggies.
“To be a part of it is huge,” Lovejoy said.
The market has partnered up with nonprofit organizations to help bring leftover food from the market to the tables of families in need.
Canton’s Smathers Farmers and Public Market kicks off Thursday, May 27. To learn more about it, click here.