While our city may be the Farm-to-Fork Capital, it’s not always easy to keep up with all of the farmers markets throughout Sacramento.
That’s in part due to the markets being organized by different groups, like the Midtown Association spearheading the Midtown Farmers Market, and NeighborWorks taking charge of the Oak Park Community Farmers Market, with no real centralized resource that lets residents keep track of when + where each market occurs in the River City.
That doesn’t even bring all of our pop-up farm stands + non-certified markets to the table…
That’s the problem that local nonprofit Alchemist Community Development Corporation has set out to solve — and just in time for National Farmers Market Week, which runs until Sat., Aug. 13.
“It has been frustrating that we could not easily share information for every market and farm stand in the region for quite some time, and it recently dawned on us that we are better-positioned than just about anyone to solve that problem,” Sam Greenlee, the executive director of Alchemist, told us.
The local nonprofit has been connecting shoppers + small farms throughout the Sacramento region with access to CalFresh benefits — and its own nutrition incentive Market Match that provides up to $10 to buy fresh produce — for about a decade.
From the relationships it has built with small farms and business owners through these programs, Alchemist has launched a series of online tools that empower both farmers + farm-fresh-loving foodies alike. Here’s what they are:
- A map that pinpoints every certified and non-certified farmers market in the area, including farm stands (non-certified simply means that the available produce isn’t guaranteed to be local)
- A complete list of every vendor at the markets, sortable by season, type, and more
- A beginner’s guide to shopping
- The CalFresh/EBT program + how to apply
