The Raleigh Farmer’s Market is a study of contrast.
It’s just a few hundred yards away from the technological wonderland that is Centennial Campus, and only a few miles down the road from traffic-jammed Western Boulevard.
It maintains long hours — 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week — in order to meet high demands of local restaurants and fresh food aficionados, and more than 50 farmers come in and out of the market each day.
However, in the market’s indoor Market Shoppes strains of country music mix with the chirping of birds nested in the rafters. An elderly lady, in front of her bakery stand, serves a toddler a homemade cookie. Conversations, cars and check-out aisles all move at a slower pace.
Touted as a “down-home place” to buy the freshest locally grown foods in the city, it is an escape from the usual grocery store’s fluorescent lighting and imported produce.
And for some students who have grown accustomed to the fast-moving speed of college life in the capital city, it’s a reminder of home.
“My family grows apples in Hendersonville, N. C.,” Ben Marlowe, a sophomore in agricultural business management, said. “There’s an apple stand at the farmer’s market from the same place, so it’s like being at home with the things I’m used to.”
During its busiest months, the open air stalls spill out into the parking lots with people scavenging for fresh corn, blueberries and green beans.
“In the spring, vendors begin to come in with strawberries and flowers,” Tonya Dunn, a sophomore in agricultural business management, said. “The market begins to pick back up then. The busiest season is summer, which is when the market is the fullest.”
She should know. Dunn sells peaches at the Pee Dee Orchards stand in the spring and summer, apples for Perry Lowe Orchards in the fall and helps her own family’s Dunn’s Nursery sell flowers in the fall.
In the freezing weather of February, however, the indoor Market Shoppes receive the most foot traffic.
“The Market Shoppes consist of vendors who stay year round and sell a variety of different things like fruits, vegetables and specialty items,” Dunn said. “Right now the farmers who are on the line are selling greens and other winter vegetables. Firewood is also popular now.”
The Market Shoppes house stands with wares that stretch beyond fruits and vegetables. Its food items work as a map of North Carolina cities and counties.
The Roberts Family Farms stand features buckets and buckets of colorful candies. At Cole’s Produce Patch, deep-fried peanuts bring back memories of the N.C. State Fair’s fried food smorgasbord.
Sourwood Honey from Asheville, N.C., is found at Joyce’s Produce, and Duplin County’s extensive selection of wine is represented at The Berry Patch.
Located off of Lake Wheeler Road, the market houses 35,000 spaces for growers to sell fruits, vegetables, Christmas trees, crafts and more. According to the market’s Web site, more than 300 items are offered up to both large wholesale buyers in the areas and Raleigh residents, including students.
“Students who cook can find many items here, such as fruits, vegetables, peas and butter beans,” Ronnie Best, the market manager, said. “There’s even meat at the Nahunta Pork Center in the market.”
For students who haven’t worked up the courage to recreate their favorite Fountain Dining Hall recipes, the market houses three restaurants — a seafood restaurant, the Market Grill and the State Farmer’s Market Restaurant, home to the best biscuits Allison Griffin, a senior in biology at Meredith College, said she has ever had.
Griffin, who also takes classes at N.C. State, works in the restaurant. She said it is a good place to eat, as well as a good place to just browse around.
“It offers students a chance to get quality food at a decent price,” Griffin said.
The restaurant, open six days a week from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., serves up country food and homemade desserts with the help of its overalls-clad wait staff.
However, the market’s agricultural connection to NCSU is not the only way the Wolfpack is represented. Pierce’s Fruit stand sells an extensive collection of N.C. State coasters, napkins, flags and picture frames.
Of course, these items sit side by side other paraphernalia of the light blue persuasion, but that’s the way it is at a farmer’s market in the middle of a bustling city.