BY LOGAN HURSTON
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Rising Gardens is set to host its first market of 2025 on Sunday, March 23, from 1 to 5 p.m. at 231 E. Drake Ave. in Auburn.
The market was created in 2021 by a team of concerned citizens as a way to bring fresh, organic produce from the farmer directly to the community. Co-founders Sam, Ada and Rasika, who asked that their last names not be used, plan on holding a Rising Gardens Market every two to three months.
“We realized that healthy food is not accessible to most people,” said Sam. “There are areas described as food deserts where there is no food available in walking distance that isn’t highly processed. We see that desperate need for fresh produce in the community, and we started looking into different farms and working on building relationships with them.”
The Rising Garden Market works with local farms like Smith’s Farm and Ranch, Shady Grove Road Blueberry Patch, Joy Haven Farm, Midnight Microgreens and Extreme Greens, located in Tuskegee, Shorter and Auburn, along with three farms in Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Rising Gardens offers more than fresh produce — it will bring in chefs to demonstrate how to cook some of the foods at the market. Demonstrations vary depending on market offerings. In the past, chefs have taught onlookers how to juice produce, prepare salads and cook with specific ingredients. Each demonstration lasts between 15 to 30 minutes, and those who watch the full demonstration get to taste the food at the end.
“It’s just a good way for people to see some of the produce in the market and see how to cook with it,” Sam explained. “I know for my generation that a major roadblock for cooking is finding the time and effort. But even when we find the time and effort, sometimes we aren’t sure what we could put together with these ingredients that would be appetizing. The food demonstrations are there to help some of the local people that are making food, and to show people firsthand experience of what they can do with certain foods.”
Rising Gardens also brings in different activities to entice potential customers. At past markets, the team has brought in local jewelry vendors and candle makers. At each market, a different musical artist provides entertainment, and at the end of the market, everyone is invited to join a “jam session” with the artists and other musicians. Most of the instruments tend to be drums, but a few guitars and even a saxophone has been used in the past.
“After hosting these events we’ve realized that everyone has a talent or gift to offer,” said Ada. “Even if our friends didn’t start off with a business, they realized ‘oh, I could bake this and sell it in the market.’ It feels good to give people more encouragement to put their products or their talents out there.”
For the first time at the Rising Gardens Market, they will have a film showing during the market. Showtimes for the film, titled “Who’s your farmer,” will be at 3 and 4 p.m. The film is about local farmers in Alabama and was curated by Southern Exposure, a film fellowship program created to raise awareness about Alabama’s natural resources and important environmental issues.
“This market we are really excited to have the Auburn Bee Lab come out,” said Rasika. “They are going to have a demonstration on native pollinators, beekeeping and wild bees. I’m also really excited about our food demo. This demo is all about mushrooms, whether it’s how to clean, prepare or how to cook them.”
Rising Gardens Market accepts EBT payments and Risingis working with the Double Up Food Bucks to allow customers with SNAP benefits to get twice as much produce for the price. The market allows up to $40 extra in Double Up Food Bucks tokens to buy fruits and vegetables.
For more information about Rising Gardens Market, visit @risinggardens on Facebook and Instagram.