Written by Russ Jackson.
Photo Credit: Russ Jackson
With summer just around the corner, Chattanoogans finally have something to do on lazy Sunday afternoons. This Sunday, April 26, the Chattanooga Market opens for its eighth season with a record number of 150 local vendors and farms. New hours for the Chattanooga Market are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. In celebration of Earth Day, this Sunday's Market will feature Crabtree Farms' new TasteBuds Guide on buying fresh and local food products and dining out guide. Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga will also join the Market with face painting, seed mosaic crafts, handmade, eco-friendly bracelets made by girls and a moon walk. Musical acts The Tin Cup Gypsy, Bucktown Kickback and Jimmy Davis will perform throughout the afternoon.
"We have more vendors for opening day than ever before in the Market’s history, said Paul Smith, Manager of the Chattanooga Market. "Demand has been tremendous for space.” According to Smith, the 2009 season will be bigger and more popular than ever before:
"We have the SAFE program to buy local sustainable food products, and we’re introducing Chattanooga Market VISA card, which will help fund the market. This season will feature 12 special events including a barbecue cook-off on May 24, a strawberry festival, a peach festival and a home and garden show." -Paul Smith, Chattanooga Market
This year the Market will also offer a free climbing wall from for kids from Urban Rocks Gym. Encouraging Chattanoogans to buy local and support sustainable food, the Chattanooga Market is unveiling the Support Area Food Economies (SAFE) Program. Customers can purchase memberships from 10 to 25 weeks and select the You Pick It or We Pick It program. Through the We Pick It program, Chattanooga Market staff shop pre-Market hours for the best food and leave it for you to pick up at the market. The You Pick It option allows you to use your allotted vouchers throughout the week to purchase food from the Market on Sundays. The Chattanooga Market’s web site describes the SAFE program as, “designed just for the localvore who wants to keep it fresh and keep it local. For the price of a dinner out, you can enjoy an abundance of fresh, healthy, locally-grown and hand-crafted foods all week while both stabilizing and promoting our local economy.”
For more information on SAFE or the Chattanooga Market, visit www.chattanoogamarket.com
Sarah on April 25, 2009
National Cornbread Festival AND the Chattanooga Market. It's gonna be a busy little Chattanooga Sunday.
fftspam on April 28, 2009
Who is doing the Tastesbuds website and branding?
And who ultimately is writing the check for it?
The amount of crap that I was handed at the market Sunday (magnets, bumper stickers, etc) will obviously negate any change in my behavior.
josiahq on April 28, 2009
The TasteBuds branding was done pro-bono by a gifted group of UTC design students as part of their Professional Practices class. The website is being built by Medium, again, pro-bono.
Even the printing costs were greatly reduced by Williams company, and the majority of the materials were 100% recycled paper (with the exception of the backing of the magnets).
Pretty cool what a group of Chattanoogans can accomplish with a good idea and some hard work.
fred on April 29, 2009
WaHoo!!
recycled paper!!
Did "Medium" also pay printing costs?