Local food hub opens grocery store in Auburn

The Farmer's Marketplace, an online market and food hub, recently opened the doors of a physical grocery store in Auburn. The business plans to celebrate its official grand opening event from 5-8 p.m. Aug. 4 at its new location, 195 Elm Ave., in Downtown Auburn. The event will feature live music, a barbeque featuring the shop's meat selections, meet-the-maker opportunities, in-store shopping and more. "We are a community grocery store and gathering space," owner Tammi Riedl said. "Being in the storefront provides me the opportunity to meet the community and really share our knowledge." The new store specializes in organic, local, artisan products, including meats, breads, pastas, produce, honey, flowers, and more. They are open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Riedl shared her mission is to support local farmers and producers and offer food that is healthy and locally sourced to the community. "A lot of the producers I work with are smaller scale," she said. "They are not at a production capacity to get into larger retail stores." Riedl has created a relationship with more than 100 local food producers and artisans in the four years she has run her online food hub, and she hopes the grocery store will provide more opportunities for the small farmers in the area to grow. "I really want to connect the community with our local food producers," she said. "I want to support what our food producers are doing and build a local regenerative food system." Riedl said the new shop offers her the opportunity to add even more farms to her network. "The really big thing here is all the produce offered in our store is, if not certified organic, grown with organic practices," she said. "We are all about healthy food and educating the community." Feedback has been positive, Riedl said. She said she feels supported by the community. "They like the convenience of picking up what they need without going to a large grocery store," she said. "They already know that this is all clean, healthy food. They don't have to read labels." The space is well lit on the corner of the Pistol Pete's center facing Elm Avenue downtown. The shop has seating spaces for patrons to enjoy their goods. Riedl said she plans to host workshops and gatherings to cover topics such as History of Food, Food Sourcing Organic and Seasonal Produce, Food Preservation and Living Regeneratively. She said she plans for an organic coffee and espresso bar. She also plans to sell soups and sandwiches. The new space also provides a central hub for Riedl to continue to operate her online farmer's market business. She said she still plans to have local pick-up hubs, and she hopes to partner with local businesses throughout her service area to act as pick-up points. Riedl's next venture is working to provide a non-profit side of her food hub mission. She has been operating the non-profit Gold Country Food Hub for two years, which runs a number of programs to connect people in the county with healthy foods. "What I'm passionate about is bringing locally grown and clean foods into food banks so when people are getting their free goods, they are getting farm-produced food and the farmers are getting paid for doing that," she said. All proceeds from the grand opening celebration Aug. 4 will go toward Gold Country Food Hub.