National Farmers Market Week: Support Fairfax Market Vendors

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — The first week of August marks National Farmers Market Week, and there's no better time to visit Fairfax City's Farmers Markets and support local producers.

The Fairfax Farmers Markets on Saturdays and Sundays are run by the Downtown Fairfax Coalition.

Customers visiting the Fairfax Farmers Market are going to find the same produce, fruit, plants, and flowers that you'd find at other markets around the region. But, they'll also find non-traditional items like gourmet Chinese meals, empanadas, handcrafted jewelry, crepes, handcrafted pottery, and Bolivian saltenas, kabobs, and hand-knitted sweaters.

This year, National Farmers Market Week from Aug. 1 to 7 celebrates the resiliency of farmers markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid challenges with conventional food supply chains at the start of the pandemic, farmers markets stepped up to meet a growing interest in local foods. Markets adapted to restrictions with social distancing, regulating traffic flow, advance ordering systems and more for the safety of vendors and shoppers.

All vendors, their employees, and children 5 and older are asked to wear masks this year at the market. A distance of 6 feet will be maintained between each of the vendors and socially distancing will be observed.

The markets are open Saturdays through Oct. 30, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; and Sundays, through Oct. 24, from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., in the parking lot behind off of West Street and behind the Wells Fargo Bank on Main Street.

The annual National Farmers Market Week celebration is coordinated by the Farmers Market Coalition, a nonprofit providing training, technical assistance and network-building to farmers markets nationwide.