Tuesday marked the seventh week of operation for the Richmond Hill Farmers Market, and it has become a weekly favorite among many residents and area vendors.
Market manager Angus McLeod said more than 30 vendors from areas like Jesup, Augusta, Bluffton, S.C., and Statesboro set up shop each week.
To date, the market’s sponsor, the Richmond Hill Park and Tree Department, has cleared more than $3,000 in vendor fees, McLeod said.
“That goes into the tree and parks services general fund,” he said. “It’s like the rental (fees) they get from the (John W. Stevens) Wetlands Center.”
McLeod said he has been pleased with the market’s progress since its inception in July and added the local support has been “phenomenal.”
“I think it’s been extra good,” McLeod said. “The response from the people in Richmond Hill has been great. You’ve got regular customers week after week, you’ve got mothers pulling a wagon and pushing a stroller. People walk out of there with five or six bags of veggies.”
McLeod added that he takes a reading from the meter at the entrance of J.F. Gregory Park at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. each week and said around 600 cars come into the park during market hours each Tuesday.
One of those cars brings Maria Williams to the market often, she said, and Tuesday she had a handful of grocery bags filled with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage and more.
“I come just about every week” she said. “Angus did a good job putting this together.”
Vendor Libby Oxenrider with Balance, a healing and educational center in Savannah that sells holistic products, said she has enjoyed being at the market each week. And though some weeks bring less traffic to the market, she said she still sees the same faces.
“We’re having repeat visitors like crazy,” she said. “Nurses, doctors, chiropractors are all buying our pain relief spray for their patients, and our hand sanitizer is really popular.”

Read more in the Sept. 3 edition of the News