Birmingham — “No carrots this week?”

The disembodied voice calls out from the milling crowd in front of Snow’s Bend Farm tent.

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John Kessler, jkessler@ajc.com/AJC

Some of the offerings at the Birmingham Food Terminal and Alabama Farmers Market. This large market sells to both food service providers and individual shoppers, unlike the Pepper Place Market across town.

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John Kessler, jkessler@ajc.com/AJC

Birmigham chef Chris Hastings (left) and farmer David Snow of Snow’s Bend Farm show off some fresh cherry tomatoes at the Pepper Place Farmers Market. More photos

GO TO MARKET
• Pepper Place Saturday Market
7 a.m.-noon Saturdays, through Sept. 27. 2829 Second Ave. S. (between 28th and 29th streets), Birmingham. 205-802-2100, pepperplacemarket.com
. • Peachtree Road Farmers Market
8:30 a.m.-noon Saturdays, through Oct. 25. Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-365-1078, www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com.
• Atlanta Farmers Market Guide, with maps, info and Web links for many more local produce stands and farmers markets.
• Photo Gallery: More photos from the Birmingham and Atlanta area farmers markets mentioned in John Kessler's column.

John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns A forgotten recipe, a stew that fits all restrictions  Atlanta food expert explains the science behind her recipes  Your fool-proof checklist for Thanksgiving         More John Kessler Related: Christmas recipes Atlanta Holiday Guide AJC Food & Drink Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Favorite Atlanta recipes

“Not until September,” farmer David Snow responds to the No-One-in-Particular who asked.

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Snow’s Bend — a well-loved organic farm 65 miles from Birmingham — is one of the big draws at the Pepper Place Saturday Market in the city’s transitioning Lakeview district. No wonder: Carrots aside, this farmer brings everything from potatoes and watermelon to long-stemmed cockscomb flowers with their ruffled, undulating blooms that look almost like little vermilion brains.

Pepper Place is the farmers market we dream of. It sprawls throughout the courtyard embraced by the buildings of an old Dr Pepper syrup production plant, a willy-nilly and happy place. The nearly 70 vendors are farmers, artisan food producers, bakers, local restaurateurs and a smattering of folk artists. It is a place where you arrive early to grab a hot breakfast burrito or a scoop of peach ice cream served right from the churn, and then mill slowly about.

“You know what this place is?” says Susan Matlock, the president of a local business incubation program called the Innovation Depot. “It’s the Saturday morning cocktail party.”

She’s not referring to any libation (though more than a few of the chefs who come for cooking demos have passed around a thermos of Bloody Marys), but rather to the fact that everyone in town comes.

The market, which runs from May through September, attracts 5,000 to 6,000 visitors every Saturday. If you don’t bump into someone you know here, you don’t know Birmingham.

For a visitor from a major metropolis to the east, the first question is: Why don’t we have anything like this? This town boasts farmers markets aplenty, but do we have one that puts the bright red “you are here” sticker on the map of Atlanta?

‘Markets build community’

Like many cities, Atlanta has seen a surge in the number of farmers markets in recent years. Thanks to a number of reasons — distrust of the food supply, changing tastes, rising fuel costs and, dare we say, a certain modishness — food shoppers are searching for more local options. (Most recently, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has counted 21 markets here; you can find the list online by hitting the “Talk and Tips” link at eveningedge.com.)

But elsewhere — Baltimore; Boulder, Colo.; and Madison, Wis.; for instance — the big, central farmers market becomes a key component of the city’s soul.

The origins of Pepper Place explain how this happened in Birmingham. Cathy Crenshaw, a developer whose family business, Sloss Real Estate, owns most of the buildings within view, founded the market in 2000 as an urban redevelopment project.

“Markets build community, help revitalize urban neighborhoods and incubate new businesses,” says Crenshaw, whose personal fortune and sense of civic altruism intertwine in a perfect helix of positive energy.

The still-patchy scenery surrounding the market — a wide-streeted flatlands downhill from downtown — encompasses hip restaurants and design shops as well as a kind of post-industrial scenic poetry of warehouses and weeds. The smokestacks of the dormant Sloss Furnaces (built by Crenshaw’s great-great-grandfather in the 1880s and now designated a National Historical Landmark) stand sentry nearby.

In its first season, the market featured only 20 tents. “All the farmers were growing the same stuff,” Crenshaw recalls. Market personnel took a proactive approach with vendors — inspecting all the farms to make sure the product was indeed locally grown but also encouraging them to experiment with organic farming practices and grow more of what the market demanded (such as heirloom tomatoes).

Parking is easy

The more diversified the offerings grew, the more shoppers came. Through one prism you see the South — shelled field peas, conventionally grown peaches and okra, jars of chow chow, iced lemon loaf. There are even live blues musicians. Through another lens, this market is pure catnip for urban professionals — mounds of organic basil, Black Krim tomatoes, organic purple cornmeal, European hearth-baked bread.

“We’re now as big as Union Square [Greenmarket, in lower Manhattan] in terms of the number of tents,” boasts Crenshaw, who bustles about the place in a market apron, chattering with everyone she passes.

For as big as the market is, few of the vendors fade into the background. Indeed, each has a unique story.

Jones Valley Urban Farm, for instance, uses organic practices to farm a 3 1/2-acre city block of downtown Birmingham and brings local students through on work-study programs.

Another detail that contributes to the success of the market — and one that can’t be overlooked — is its ease of parking. A few buildings are developed enough to offer lots, but there’s no shortage of street parking. In fact, when you see people wandering the streets laden with sacks of melons and corn, you know you’re close.

Back in Atlanta, parking is surely the biggest deterrent to the Piedmont Park Green Market. Despite its picturesque location, this market can’t begin to compete with the two other important intown Saturday markets. The Morningside Farmers Market, which admits only certified organic vendors, attracts loyal shoppers who make sure to e-mail Nicolas Donck of Crystal Organics to say please, please, pretty please save them a dozen eggs.

The one Atlanta market that seems to be taking off — and has the best chance to become the closest thing to Pepper Place — is the Peachtree Road Farmers Market in the parking lot of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Buckhead.

Dozens of vendors line the path, and they all have their stories to tell. Lucero Martinez-Obregon sells fresh salsa. The new H&F Bread Co. draws lines. Little Sofia and Audrey Broffman, ages 9 and 10, stand by their mother (Via Elisa Fresh Pasta’s Elisa Gambino) and sell lemonade for charity.

Can this market expand beyond its present size? Might it need to jump from the parking lot to the lawn? Would people be willing to brave south Buckhead traffic to make it a part of their routine?

Time will tell, but this much is certain. If Atlanta ever gets its act together for a market like Pepper Place, it will be a better city for it.