When my nutrition professor mentioned the Dekalb Farmers Market, I envisioned a parking lot filled with small wooden tables, white tents, and scribbled-on picket signs listing the freshest produce of the day. As an avid foodie and an aspiring nutritionist, there’s nothing like perusing a quaint farmer’s market on a Saturday morning. Just thinking of the sorts of farm-to-table meals I can prepare with my basket of vegetables and home-baked loaves makes me jittery. But in the best way possible, the Dekalb Farmers Market is nothing like the aforementioned markets that I am used to. I was surprised to learn that there is absolutely nothing quaint about it. Foodie or not, be prepared to get swept off your feet by the warehouse-sized space that is filled with every edible thing under the sun.
First things first, let’s talk about how it became a 140,000 square foot “world market.” The Dekalb Farmers Market started out like any of the farmers markets I’ve been to at home where a 7,500 square foot area is packed with produce displayed on tables and stands, while humble farmers and their spouses and children stand by to help unload and sell the goods. The Dekalb Farmers Market today, however, has transformed from those early stages, and has truly become a world market. There are flags everywhere labeling where each and every item originated. When I walked in, I felt like I was at the World’s Expo; but instead of each country boasting its greatest industrial innovations, the Dekalb Farmers Market is an exhibition of each country’s plumpest tomatoes and juiciest berries. Certainly, this market is anything but local, but at the same time rather extraordinary.
Despite its enormous size, the service at this market is just as good as the service I’ve experienced at the charming parking lot-venue markets that I’ve been to before. I approached a gorgeous array of mushrooms, but the variety was overwhelming. I thought I knew what I wanted until I saw that there were upwards of ten kinds of oyster mushrooms! King, baby, elm, and so many more. Lucky for me, the employees were eager to help. When one of them saw my puzzled face, he zoomed right over from restocking the bins of turmeric and cassava root to explain to me the difference between each type of mushroom, how to cook them, and even introduced me to a new species (the chanterelle mushroom). He asked me how much money I wanted to spend and filled up a plastic bag accordingly. My experience only got better when I saw how much produce I’d be getting for such a small amount of money. At whole foods, a pint-sized container of fancy mushrooms can cost up to a whopping twenty-five dollars. But I bought my big bag for just five dollars – and one week later, I still have some left. Fair prices are yet another perk of the Dekalb Farmers Market. Some of the produce is even labeled at its original cost and then crossed out and replaced with their own lower price. Consumers at the farmers market don’t have to make any compromises. For reasonable prices, I was able to buy high quality goods.
After raving about the Dekalb Farmers Market, there is just one piece of advice I need to give – go with an empty refrigerator. As Emory students, we are blessed with Kroger and Publix (CVS, too) on every corner, so it may be easy to avoid the trek to the farmers market. It is a 15-20 minute ride from Emory’s campus without horrendous Atlanta traffic. So to make your trip worth-while, go when you’re in need of a major restocking. I ventured to this market with my friend Ronni, a junior at Emory, and asked her opinion of the market: “It’s a little overwhelming because of its size, but I know that if I was looking for a very obscure item, I’d be sure to find it there.” That being said, we both thought it was a great place to try new things – Japanese sweet potatoes and persimmons. Perhaps these new finds might allow us to try some new recipes, and kick our habit of ordering in sushi every night.