Orlando Farmer's Market: Bringing Community to the Heart of the City
Orlando Farmer's Market: Bringing Community to the Heart of the City
Photo: Good Grit Magazine
In the past, if you wanted to shop for organic food, custom jewelry or home goods in downtown Orlando, you’d have to get in your car and drive across town to several separate locations. These days, downtown residents instead walk to the Orlando Farmers’ Market in Lake Eola Park, a one-of-a-kind open-air bazaar operating every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. “It has its own following, its own inertia. It creates its own energy, it is its own destination,” said Thomas Chatmon, Executive Director of the Downtown Development Board of Orlando. “We’re really proud of the number of strollers that you see on a given Sunday. People come through and they’ve got their pets with them, it’s just a really nice family atmosphere. What we want it to be is a family destination, because quite frankly families don’t have the opportunity to eat or shop downtown that often and this gives them the opportunity to do so.”
Surrounded by bustling nightlife, dining, shopping, and entertainment districts of Thornton Park, the South Eola District, and the Central Business District, Lake Eola Park is a giant backdoor garden for Orlando—like the Central Park of central Florida. Visitors from around the state and beyond come to grab produce from the market, but stay to stroll the sidewalks that link the city’s neighborhoods. With the addition of a craft beer and wine garden, the OFM now offers events and activities for college students, families with children, and couples out to enjoy the sunshine. Chatmon said on most Sundays the OFM sees 8-10,000 guests, while Lake Eola Park itself hosts more than 2.5 million annually.
Among the booths found around Lake Eola Park are Che Bella, the gourmet and specialty cheese purveyor, locally sourced honey vendor Happy Bee Honey, and Coco H2O who sells coconut water straight out of the fruit. An OFM regular, The Hip Lion Coffee sells their trademark carbonated, cold-brewed “Coffee Pops.” Additionally, Pensar Africa, an ethically sourced retail cooperative based in Orlando, sells handmade clothing, jewelry and accessories from Tanzania, Angola, and Ghana to benefit artisans and craftsman across the Atlantic.
“We really like to feature local vendors, people that make their own products. If it’s grown in the area, we have a preference for that,” Chatmon said. “We like to encourage the arts. A lot of other markets don’t do that, but we find that it works well in this context for us. The community is good for the arts and it makes for a non-traditional farmer’s market.” Featuring more than 100 individual vendors, Chatmon said the OFM plans to expand to more than 150 by the spring of 2016, making it the largest farmer’s market in the southeast. With a large waiting list of vendors to choose from, the Orlando Farmers’ Market maintains a diverse offering while preventing businesses from cannibalizing each other’s markets, Chatmon said.
Officially founded in 1892, Lake Eola Park has greatly expanded its size and entertainment as nearby Washington Street was closed, expanding pedestrian traffic while maintaining urban tranquility. Since 2013, 1.4 acres of lawn space, wider sidewalks, 4,000 square-feet of patio, 7,500 square-feet of brick paving on former E. Washington street, and state-of-the-art LED lighting for the Linton E. Allen fountain at the lake’s center have been added—a multimillion dollar investment fulfilling the city’s promise to keep Lake Eola Park beautiful.
The Downtown Development Board (DDB) of Orlando started the Farmers’ Market in 1987 to provide shopping opportunities for urban residents. Though the market was a quick success for tourists and locals alike, its location—under an I-4 overpass across from the hip but congested Church Street Station—led to severe traffic problems and a new location was deemed necessary. In the late 1990s, as downtown Orlando was first entering its present state of urban redevelopment, the DDB moved the farmers’ market to Heritage Square where it remained until 2004.
Now in its 28th year, the market’s third and final location in Lake Eola Park (East Central Blvd. & N. Eola Drive) provides more space for vendors, performers, and shoppers while remaining first and foremost a lakefront park. Plans by the DDB to expand the market while maintaining the pristine conditions of the park and lake are already underway and will provide more outdoor recreation area in the heart of the city than ever before. “It’s a great setting with the lake, the trees, the skyline, it all kind of comes together and has become a very popular venue for us, it’s really become a destination,” Chatmon said.