Real Food Farmers Market opens Thursday

A local nonprofit dedicated to expanding people's access to homegrown, organic foods is launching a new year-round farmers' market in Downtown Auburn Thursday night. The Real Food Farmers Market will debut with a grand opening at 195 Elm Ave. from 5 to 8 p.m. Organizer and Auburn resident Tammi Reidl, founder of Gold Country Food Hub, said the event will feature live music, children's activities and potentially up to 26 vendors – all local or regional producers of organic produce, regeneratively-raised meats, artisan breads and baked goods, and holistic wellness items. Nothing sold at the Real Food Farmers Market contains any synthetic chemicals or unnatural ingredients, and all are pesticide free, said Reidl. "It's all clean, healthy food," she said. "That's the core value that I live by in all of this." Reidl's nonprofit Gold Country Food Hub, which she started in 2021, was modeled, she said, after the Tahoe Food Hub in Truckee. That business model first inspired her to open her brick-and-mortar store, The Farmers Market Place, in 2019. The store, located at 195 Elm Ave., sells the same types of food and health products that will be available in its parking lot at the Thursday night market. But the store, said Reidl, was "never the big plan." With Gold Country Food Hub, she was able to broaden the reach of local and regional farmers by acting as a connector between them and customers who want their products, such as schools, healthcare organizations and food pantries. It's part of what Reidl says is a strong regional clean-food network. "There's a lot of infrastructure already in place and it's cool because if anything ever happens, we've got access to food here locally," she said. Reidl, who also grows produce on her 10-acre Auburn farm, said the Food Hub will keep working to expand that system through education and promotion. "It's all about supporting our farmers and connecting the community to healthy foods," she said. Reidl noted that the new Real Food Farmers Market is "a Thursday evening where you can bring the family, meet the people growing and making your food, fill your bags for the week, support local producers, let the kids create something, listen to music and actually spend an evening connecting with your community." Commodities people can expect to find at the Thursday market include organically-grown produce, regeneratively-raised meats, organic artisan sourdough, local eggs, flowers and honey, organic baked goods, holistic wellness goods, handmade goods for the home. For more information, visit https://www.thefarmersmarketplace.com/ and https://www.goldcountryfoodhub.org/