The Statesboro Main Street Farmers Market, relocated to the freshly remade and repurposed former warehouse behind the Visit Statesboro welcome center, 222 South Main St., is set to open April 2 for a season lasting into November.

Market hours will be 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. each Saturday.

One evening earlier this week, a few dozen Farmers Market vendors took a look around the new venue and received information on how the market will operate this year.

The metal building’s roof, with big ceiling fans hanging from the trusses, towered over the gathering. Several of the tall, glass and metal roll-up doors – four on the front and four on the back under transom windows – were open to let in the breeze.

Interior additions to the otherwise cavernous space are all in the northern end of the building, where there’s a catering kitchen in the middle behind a tabletop serving bar. Upstairs, a central loft will serve as stage for musicians or announcements. Restrooms are at ground level, through a doorway to the right of the kitchen.

“It’s going to be some kind of nice,” said beekeeper Curtis Kimbrell, who attended the information meeting with his wife, Jennifer Kimbrell. “We did real well last year out in the open, so this here’s going to be some kind of nice.”

The Kimbrells, from Statesboro, have been keeping bees for honey as Humble Bumble Bee Farm for three years. This will be their second year participating in the in-person Saturday markets. But they had some honey sales every week during the off-season through the Farmers Market’s online Statesboro Market2Go, which for the past two years has handled its weekly pickup for customer orders as a drive-thru service in the Visit Statesboro parking lot.

Like most of the several  vendors interviewed after Tuesday’s  meeting, the Kimbrells hope  to claim  an  indoor space for Saturdays this season.

Floorplans that Market Manager Willow Farmer gave the vendors indicated that approximately 40 to 45 spaces will be available this season. Of these, 23 are currently designated “indoor” spaces within the walls of the building, but the map shows two potential “extra” spots near the southern end of the building.

Not all indoors

Underfoot, the concrete floor, which has a mottled beige finish in the interior, extends beyond the building’s walls in front and back and on the south end to form ground-level porches with overhanging roofs.

The two other categories of regular vendor spaces encompass 11 “covered” spaces on the porches and approximately five “outdoor” spaces intended for an area – awaiting the addition of sod – beyond the porch and pavement south of the building.

Additionally, there are four spaces designated for food trucks in front of the building.

For an indoor space, vendors will be charged $25, for a covered space $20, for an outdoor space $15 a week. MainStreet Farmers Market vendors also pay an annual membership fee of $75, according to the vendor application  available  at www.visitstatesboro.org and  through the Statesboro Main Street Farmers Market page on Facebook.

Don Jacobs of Jacobs Produce already has a space picked out inside the building.

“It’s going to be interesting for us,” he said.  “It’s going to be new for sure. I’m excited in a way and hoping it’s going to work out fine. The good part is when it’s 90 degrees outside we’re going to be inside.”

Jacobs Produce has been a part of the Main Street Market since a couple of years after it started.  He and his mother, Linda Jacobs, usually work the stand, assisted at times by other family members. They should have strawberries, broccoli, spring onions and cabbage, kale and  possibly other items for sale on opening day.

Look for corn, beans, tomatoes and peas later in the spring to summer.

“At least this year I don’t have to fight to put up my tent,” Jacobs added. “That’s going to help a lot.”

Prefers outside

Jamey Saunders of Portal hopes to bring his J.S.  Knife Sharpening stand into the covered area, but not indoors.

“I’m good with covered,” he said. “I have some machinery and it does make a little bit of noise, so outside is better for me, but at least that way I don’t have to carry a tent with me.”

But Ricardo Gaspar of Poor Robin Gardens near Sylvania said he is used to working outside, finds selling from a tent convenient and would prefer one of the outside spaces.

Still, he likes the new facility.

“I think it’s beautiful, it’s a big improvement. It will be new to folks, but it will be OK, overall,” Gaspar said.

He expects to have produce including collard greens, mustard greens, cabbage, peas, and some lettuce and arugula available at the opening.

Chef on duty

Chef Patrick White, who operates a wide-roaming private chef and catering business called Chef Boro Eats, plans to return to the market with more cooking demonstrations this season.

He asks member growers for some of what they have available, or sometimes orders from Statesboro Market2Go, and prepares dishes from fresh produce available at the market.  Last season he did this one Saturday a month.

This season, White, now a member of the Farmers Market board, will have the catering kitchen available and hopes to prepare and serve food at the market two Saturdays each month.

Bruce Field is now the board’s president, and since early last year, the market is officially hosted by the Statesboro Conventions and Visitors Bureau instead of in its original affiliation with the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority.

Farmer, who started as on-site manager last season assisting then-market manager Relinda Walker, is now the overall market manager, while Michelle Giddens continues as Market2Go manager.

Major overhaul

For a decade, the market operated in the parking area of what was Sea Island Bank and is now Synovus. Then early 2020 brought the announcement of a plan to renovate the former warehouse, purchased by the SCVB.  The project was originally expected to cost about $650,000, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought increased prices for materials and delays in their delivery.

A future story will look at the SCVB’s plans for other uses for the facility, how much the renovation actually cost and how it was funded.

A few things about the new site, such as the sod for the outdoor vending area and a safety rail for the loft stage, remained to be installed as of this week.  A wooden foot bridge planned for the creek behind the building remains in the future, but isn’t necessary for the market to open.

“I think for the most part we’re pretty much ready,” Farmer said.  “We’re just waiting on final touches to be done, but as a general note I think that we’ll be ready to start with a full season, and this will probably be our best season yet.”