After the Valentine s freeze, it s hard to imagine that a farmers market could endure right now. Mother nature just keeps punching us in the gut, says Bobby Bever of Highway 19 Produce in Athens. Just this year he d slid all his chips to the center of the table to become a full-time farmer, selling to subscribers and a handful of markets. Then the mid-February hard freeze wiped him out. We lost everything we had to sell for March markets, he said. An acre of broccoli, Brussel sprouts and beets, all gone.
Bever pulled together what he could, including jars of jams and pickled produce, which his mom cans with the leftovers after each market. They, along with other producers, bakers and artisans clapped back at mother nature and set up shop to peddle a variety of goods this past weekend.