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| - So the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market was on my Charlotte bucket list. I went, I saw, I spent 30 minutes and 20 bucks.
Located off of S Tryon, on a road I was pretty sure was going to dead end into a meth lab or some slow looking kid playing banjo music (I kid... it's a 2 lane residential-type street), the lying cow on my GPS said there were going to be signs to point me in the correct direction, but I missed them apparently. Luckily there is a HUGE sign that alerts you that you have arrived at your destination. At 8:30 am, parking was already getting a little scarce, but I think the ebb and flow of folks allows you to pretty much get a parking spot regardless of when you come.
As the other reviews have stated, there is a little bit of everything. Meats (some exotic - I saw ostrich meat on a sign), flowers, farm fresh eggs, every kind of seasonal produce you can imagine, jams/jellies, honey, pastries, breads, cookies, kettle corn, COTTON CANDY, on and on.
In the third barn were the arts and crafts folks. It was neat to see the aprons, quilts, coasters, plastic bag holders and the like. There were soaps, etched garden stones, woodcraft, hand-painted stationary - lovely items from some very talented people.
The greenery barn held every kind of plant imaginable. I walked quickly through there as I pretty much kill everything that requires nutrients unless it makes some kind of noise to remind me to feed/water it. Luckily, my cat is loud.
My only purchases ended up being a bouquet of fresh flowers for my mom (beautiful, assorted blooms and only $10) and some biscuits, no sugar added fried pies and a piece of lemon poundcake from A Lit'l Taste of Heaven from Monroe, NC. These are the same biscuits that The Meat House on Rea Rd sells and they are amazing - I got the cheese biscuits and the sweet potato biscuits and they are YUM.
I was disappointed to see that some of the produce appeared to just be re-selling of grocery store wholesale produce. I saw some plums and apples that actually had UPC type stickers on them - huh? Look for local, real farms to buy your items from. If it's real local produce, they'll have a sign up. It was an interesting adventure and if you are thinking about trying it out, it's worth the trip.
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