Scottsville Unveils Farmers’ Market

By Jason Bacaj

SCOTTSVILLE — Scottsville cut the ribbon on a new farmers’ market pavilion on a humid Thursday evening under threatening skies.

Vendors weren’t concerned about the rain, though. The consensus opinion was the pavilion is wonderful and a definite upgrade from the tent it replaced.

“I thought the tent was going to come down on us several times when the wind got high,” Ben Poindexter, owner and operator of Ben’s Baked Goods, said.

A $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture paid for the bulk of the three-year project. Scottsville pitched in $10,000, according to Clark Draper, town administrator. The project came in $168 over budget, which is “just phenomenal,” said John Garber, the architect who designed the pavilion.

Ellen Davis, the Virginia state director for rural development at the USDA, was on hand to help christen the new structure. Davis, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2006 and kept on by Barack Obama’s administration, manages a $2 billion portfolio for the state. It goes to developing anything in rural Virginia, from farmers’ markets and libraries to sewage and water systems.

“Farmers’ markets are more than just a building, a place to buy food. Places like this help keep beautiful, productive Virginia farms,” Davis said in her speech before the ribbon-cutting.

Scottsville’s new farmers’ market building can hold as many as 30 vendors.

All vendors have to do is sign up ahead of time and pay is 5 percent of whatever they sell at the market, no renting fee or market fee, said Bebe Williams, market director and town councilor. Fifty-eight people have signed up so far, he said.

But the money isn’t what keeps vendors coming back, according to Poindexter, who started selling his baked goods at farmers’ markets in 2002. He sells at four farmers’ markets around the area and doesn’t quite turn a profit after buying all he needs for his baked goods, which he makes in his Charlottesville apartment.

“If I didn’t enjoy baking, I wouldn’t do it,” Poindexter said.

Other vendors on hand Thursday evening shared his sentiments. It’s different every week, said Kate Wilmouth, a local farmer who has sold produce at the market for about 10 years.

“I just like to garden. What I don’t sell I bring back home and prepare it [or store it]. It doesn’t go to waste,” Wilmouth said.

In addition to selling assorted goods, the farmers’ market is a great place to meet and visit people around the community, said Rosalyn Koontz, who sells perennials and shrubs at the market and owns Highlawn Farm in Howardsville with her husband, David Hurd. The plant nursery is a big part of the 80-acre farm, she said.

“I enjoy growing plants [and] I enjoy the people, both the customers and the vendors,” Koontz said.

The pavilion brought officials from the town of Mineral in Louisa County looking to apply for a USDA grant to build their own farmers’ market pavilion. Right now Mineral’s market, is held in an open field and it has “just flourished” in its first year, said Bill Thomas, a Mineral town councilor.

Scottsville officials see the pavilion becoming more than just a facility for the farmers’ market.

A rental agreement is being drawn up so people can rent it out for events such as family reunions and wedding receptions, said Stephen Phipps, mayor of Scottsville.

“It can really become the heart of the community,” Davis said.