There may be just one downside to relying on a farmers' market to stock up on your produce, dairy and other staples : limited hours of operation. As it turns out, those of you wanting to head to the lake on a Saturday morning instead of C-Street or the Battlefield Mall parking lot don't need to fret about missing out.
Homegrown Foods, located at 601 S. Pickwick in the downtown area of Springfield, boasts a wide variety of foods from local produce provided by assorted local farmers to a wide variety of meats, eggs, and breads from larger businesses. Each produce item includes the name and general location of the seller along with the price. The store also sells items from major local vendors like Askinosie Chocolate and Ozark Country Kitchen jams, as well as a wide assortment of meats from Real Farm Foods and Rocking Z Ranch, sourdough and focaccia breads from Old Mill Bagel Company, and eggs (which currently sell for $4.00 per dozen) and milk (for which you can get $1.50 deposit back on each bottle you use and return) from Ozark Mountain Creamery.
The store's first focus is on providing locally grown foods to the community and also values organically grown food. They also request that customers bring any empty egg cartons to the store for their re-use. Homegrown Foods is open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m..
For more information on Homegrown Foods you can sign up to get information on their webpage at homegrownfoodstore.com or visit their oft-updated Facebook page!
Does the availability to purchase local foods from a store rather than a weekly farmers' market encourage you to buy and use local more frequently?
Thank you for this post. I love fresh produce and now know where I can. :-) I think that being able to purchase locally at stores is a good thing. Not everyone, including myself, can go to the farmers market every week, but still want to buy locally. Selling local at stores helps the community and gives locals to buy locally whenever they want.
ReplyDeleteWell. I am not a connoisseur of produce, but I am a professional milk drinker. Once you go hometown milk, you never go back. This store is enabling my addiction.
ReplyDeleteI am a connoisseur of blogs, and this is a good'n.
(I'm using OUR blog to comment YOUR blog! Nifty?)
Do you happen to know how far the farmers travel for this market? A better way of saying this I think what is the radius for the produce brought to the market. I know it is an odd question, but I was just curious.
ReplyDeleteWow, $4.00 a dozen seems mighty pricey for eggs, but you simply haven't tasted what an egg is SUPPOSED to taste like until you have a homegrown, actually fresh one. I love the idea that you get a rebate on the milk carton. Anything that gives you a deal AND encourages shoppers to be eco-minded really makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a great place, and I've heard nothing but wonderful things about there veggies. I'm especially excited to get some fresh beef! I love me some steak-ums. =)
I am a huge advocate for local businesses, and I would be much more likely to frequent this place than a farmer's market. Availability is very important to people.
Jamie - I'm not exactly well-informed when it comes to southwest MO geography, but I DO know that a lot of the produce came from Springfield, according to the labels. The meat and dairy products, however, came from a bit farther away... Rocking Z and Ozark Mountain Creamery are both located in Mountain Grove.
ReplyDeleteWow this is really neat. I had no idea that we had that here in springfield. How do you get to this place? I would definately be interested in checking it out. I like to be organic and healthy.
ReplyDeleteI love love the farmers market, it reminds me so much of home. I usually wake up every other Saturday at 8am just to get some eggs.
ReplyDeleteYou did such a nice job with this blog! It's a broken record by this point, but I didn't know this store existed prior to reading this either. I will definitely be going to check it out. I'm more than willing to pay a little bit more if it means helping out the surrounding communities.
ReplyDelete