Atlanta farmers markets 101: A guide for first-time shoppers
Your local market might be set up on green space in a public park or on the lawn of a place of worship. The vendors could be selling from tents arranged in the parking lot surrounding a local community center or city hall.
You’ll find a steady stream of people wandering through with their reusable bags and maybe a breakfast pastry or crepe in hand. There will be tables of produce that’s just been harvested nearby and baked goods fresh from a local oven.
Chances are good there will be a local coffee company with hot and iced drinks or someone with freshly made juice. A local musician might serenade the crowd.
Many markets have activities for kids, from sidewalk chalk to DIY workshops. There are likely to be dogs on leashes eyeing vendors who sell locally made dog treats.
Most markets are open rain or shine, and some have the option to set up indoors in bad weather. Market seasons vary in length, with many open year-round. Most vendors accept cash and all have an option for paying by credit card.
Through a partnership with Wholesome Wave Georgia and its Fresh for Less program, many markets match EBT dollars with an equal amount of tokens for fresh produce and, when available, food-producing plants.
Often there’s hot, freshly prepared food available, whether from a vendor with a wood-fire pizza oven or from a food truck offering everything from Southern comfort food to international cuisine.
Recipe inspiration abounds. Farmers offer tips, recipes and meal ideas for what they’re harvesting and may have samples to tempt you to try something new. Many markets have booths where chefs prepare dishes using ingredients available from vendors that week and offer free samples.
Local farmers markets have a big financial impact
Local nonprofit Community Farmers Markets has been at the helm of area neighborhood markets since 2011.
“In 2025, CFM operated 59 pop-up markets and 168 weekly outdoor markets (in four locations), producing $3 million in sales for 140 small businesses. Twenty-nine percent of those businesses are farmers, 46% are minority-owned and 56% are women-owned,” said Ana Maria Paramo, co-executive director of Community Farmers Markets, citing figures recently released in the CFM 2025 impact report.
That same impact is multiplied many times across the more than three dozen local markets throughout metro Atlanta.
Atlanta’s farmers markets are thriving
The Historic Downtown Acworth Farmers Market, sponsored by the Acworth Downtown Development Authority, has been open Friday mornings for more than 20 years. This year, it will greet shoppers two days a week, with the Friday market opening April 10 and a new Saturday morning market beginning May 16.
Some vendors at the Acworth market have been there since the early days, while others will be brand new this year. The Friday market will open with around 65 vendors and the Saturday market will open with around 40, with some selling both days. The number of vendors on Saturday is expected to grow as the new market becomes established.
Tina Rhoades, the on-site market manager since 2013, said Acworth decided to open for a second day because there were more vendor applicants than could be accommodated on Friday, and there were potential customers who couldn’t attend Fridays because of their work schedules. Rhoades is also a vendor, selling soap and diabetic-friendly preserves in her Country Rhoades Crafts booth, and wine and beer jellies at her Spiked Jellies booth.
“We try to keep it old school. You can find jewelry or art at a craft festival. Everything here is food-related. We give preference to local growers, and most of our farmers are growing food in Cobb, Cherokee, Bartow and Pickens counties. We do have a few who sell food grown regionally, bringing tomatoes, for example, before the local tomatoes start coming in,” Rhoades said.
There’s an art and a science to finding the mix of vendors that make a market work well for the vendors as well as the customers.
“It’s important for market customers that they find the right mix of things to buy at the market. (It’s also important that) we don’t have five bakers offering chocolate cookies, or five bakers with sourdough bread. Our goal is for each vendor to sell out, or come close to selling out, each week,” Rhoades said.
This well-established market has long served as a community hub.
“Every market, I see people making a morning of it, chatting with the vendors, socializing with neighbors, setting out picnic blankets on the green and taking their kids to the playground,” Rhoades said.
There are plenty of very serious shoppers, as well.
“I see folks who rush in early to grab their favorite pastries or some special vegetable or fruit because they know those things might sell out,” Rhoades said. “They fill up their bags, and some bring little wagons. You might see them going back to their cars several times to unload before coming back for more.”
Transforming hobbies into businesses
Success can be different for each business owner.
A weekly vendor at the Acworth market is Morgane Bonnin of Bonnin’s Bakery in Kennesaw.
“This will be her fifth season with us. She opened her brick-and-mortar shop in Kennesaw a little over a year ago but she still comes every week, and she has a huge following,” said Rhoades, the Acworth market manager.
Paramo shared similar stories for several longtime CFM vendors.
“Some of our vendors have opened brick-and-mortar shops, like Heaps Pies, 68th and Monroe, Sugar Loaf and La Bodega. Little Tart Bakeshop now has several brick-and-mortar shops, and they continue to sell at our markets,” she said.
“Success for others, like Osono Bread, means staying with the farmers market model. And vendors like King of Pops being at farmers markets has created a new business model that’s allowed other pop vendors, like Greatest of All Pops, to thrive,” Paramo continued. “It opens the door for the next person to build their business.”
Connect farmers directly to customers
Madhavi Scharko and Finn Swanstrom-Arnold are co-owners of Tiny Matters Farm in Fairburn who started selling at local farmers markets in 2024. This year, they’ll sell at the Morningside and Virginia Highland markets and the Green Market at Piedmont Park.
For spring, they will have lots of tulips, daffodils, poppies and lettuce. As the weather warms, they’ll start bringing the sunflowers they’re known for, which should be available every week from May through November, thanks to careful succession planting.
“We started primarily growing flowers for the markets because we were interested in seeing how much we could grow on limited space (of a half acre),” Scharko said, “but we were also experimenting with produce, growing things we like to eat. We thought we could take the produce to the markets, too, and if it didn’t sell, we could take it home and enjoy it.”
In deciding what to plant, they’ve learned to concentrate on growing things that are easy for customers to identify and already know how to use.
“The Green Market is our biggest market, and our customers there want things they can eat raw or with minimal cooking, like tomatoes, lunchbox peppers, spinach and radishes,” she added.
They’ve also learned what flowers their customers favor.
“This spring, we’re growing more snapdragons and poppies. Last year, we sold every single poppy we took to market. Our customers would tell us they were learning they needed to come earlier the next week to be sure they got some,” Scharko said.
Scharko and Swanstrom-Arnold also pay attention to the colors and textures their customers enjoy and plan accordingly.
“Our customers don’t like yellows and orange colors as much as they like pink and bronze colors, and that’s the same across all our markets,” Scharko said.
Both say they are drawn to selling at farmers markets for the customers they meet, many of whom return every week, and for the camaraderie of their fellow vendors. They laughingly acknowledge they see the vendors more than they see their other friends and appreciate that the vendor community is kind and supportive to these new farmers.
What’s fresh in early spring?
What’s available at each market varies, because not every farmer is growing everything, but in early spring you’re likely to find the season’s first vegetables and fruit and the last of the crops that have survived the winter: arugula, beets, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, cilantro, collards, fennel, flowers, kale, lettuces, microgreens, mushrooms, parsley, radicchio, radishes, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes and turnips.
Depending on the market, you may also find dairy and eggs, cheese and milk, jam and preserves, honey, teas and coffee, pickles, hot sauce and vinegar, spice blends, bread and pastries, fresh juices, smoked salmon and trout, Georgia shrimp, pet treats and a range of prepared foods.
