Are you fully operational?

Yes!

The Athens, GA market moved to this system on January 21, 2007. Since then, nearly 300 other markets across the country and into Canada and the Caribbean have followed in our footsteps.

In that time, several million dollars of food have been sold by growers to their local customers using the system. Come join us!

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How do I get my own market using this system?

Are you a person “in charge” of the market? If so, then all you need to do is answer five questions to get up and running.

If you’re a grower and want to start your own market, the same five questions will get you off the ground.

If you are a customer or a grower at an established “booths and tables” traditional farmers market, call up the market managers and point them to this page. They can take it from there.

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How long will it take to get me started?

Well, if you are yourself a grower with products ready to sell and you’ve already got just a tiny bit of experience with websites, you can be ready to accept your first order in fifteen minutes. Seriously.

In reality, though, it’ll take most markets a couple of weeks to get everything working. Most of that time will be spent getting the growers set up with accounts, adding product listings, publicizing the page to your customers so they can create accounts, get the details of what days orders can be placed and when and where the pickups will be. That sort of thing.

Very little time will actually be spent at the website — it is pretty much ready to go right out of the gate.

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What will it cost?

Markets can be created for free, but the market managers will pay LocallyGrown.net 3% of their market product sales to cover site upkeep and other expenses.

From there on, the market managers control all of the other costs. Like at a traditional “booths and tables” market, the market manager may charge growers a fee to sell through the market, and they may also charge customers a small yearly membership fee to cover their expenses.

Even so, the costs of operating (and shopping at) a LocallyGrown.net market are substantially less than all of the costs that go into operating a traditional farmers’ market.

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Can I change the appearance of my market's website?

Yes! You have full control over your site’s CSS, which gives you a lot of control. Here are some great looking markets:

Cumberland Sustainable Farmers’ Market
Stones River Market
The Cumming Harvest
Northeast Georgia Locally Grown
Augusta Locally Grown
Arkansas Local Food Network
Market at Dothan

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Who do I contact with more questions?

Hi! My name’s Eric. I’ve got a small heirloom vegetable farm in Northeast Georgia (now in its tenth year) and run the Athens Locally Grown market (also now in its tenth year).

Your best bet to reach me is by email: eric@locallygrown.net

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This is great! Can I donate money to you?

Well, thanks! I’ve gotten wonderful feedback about the system from people literally around the world, and that means a lot to me.

I do charge the markets 3% of their sales to cover my expenses keeping the site online. By combining the resource needs of hundreds of markets, I’m able to secure a single world class host for much less than all of those markets trying to do their own thing. That 3% is calculated to cover my day to day expenses and be cheaper than what those markets would have to pay (or trade) for someone to set up a similar online system on their own.

That said, there are countless hours I’ve put into programming the site. I took a year off from growing on my farm so I could concentrate on getting this done. If you’d like to send a little something extra in appreciation, I certainly won’t turn it down.

Here’s my PayPal info:

If you’re a Warren Buffet type wanting to be extra generous, I’ve always thought a Sun Horse Gardening System would be a great addition to the farm.

Thanks for all your kind words!

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