New farmers’ market coming to Lakewood Ranch in December

Live music, multiple vendors selling fresh produce, seafood, honey, dairy products and more are envisioned for a weekly farmers’ market planned between December and April at the Sarasota Polo Club.

It would mark the return of a farmers’ market to Lakewood Ranch for the first time in two years. Previously, the farmers’ market was held on Lakewood Ranch Main Street.

The locomotive pulling the return of a farmers’ market to Lakewood Ranch is the community supported agriculture partnership with Worden Farm of Punta Gorda.

More than 70 households have signed up to buy a share in the community-supported agriculture program, essentially footing the cost for Worden Farm to grow a variety of organic crops.

Worden Farm will be delivering veggie boxes, filled with an assortment of eight freshly grown items, including herbs, greens, salad greens, root vegetables, and fruiting vegetables each week to subscribers. Delivery destination is the Sarasota Polo Club, which is located at 8201 Polo Club Lane.

Contents of the veggie box will change weekly, depending on what crops are maturing in the fields. Worden Farm also will be spearheading the recruitment of vendors for the farmers’ market.

“It’s important that the vendors are the best in the area,” said Monaca Onstad, director of community relations at Lakewood Ranch.

“We want local groups to come out to perform. It should be a pretty awesome weekly event,” said Onstad, who has a family background in farming and a mother’s interest in good nutrition.

The first test was to find enough subscribers to make the community-supported agriculture partnership viable, said Eva Worden, who owns Worden Farm with her husband Chris.

“And we do. The membership is quite large now,” she said.

The next step will be to open a strong, focused farmers’ market, open to consumer demand and preferences, Worden said.

“We are going to see how it is received by the community,” Worden said.

Because of the disruption of Hurricane Irma, which flooded some of the fields at Worden Farm, the deadline to sign up for veggie box distribution has been extended to Oct. 15.

“We are still on track for the first week of December. We did have some flooding at the farm and we have recovered. We will have an abundant harvest season,” Worden said.

The farmers’ market, planned for 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays starting Dec. 6, will be open to the public. Participation in the veggie box program also is open to the public. The cost of a veggie box share works out to $29 a week for a total price of $580.

To subscribe to the community supported agriculture program, visit lakewoodranch.com/wordenfarm.

This story was originally published October 8, 2017 at 8:30 AM with the headline "New farmers’ market coming to Lakewood Ranch in December."