FFM in Rockingham County

The Farmers Fresh Market program has expanded into Rockingham, Stokes, and Caswell Counties - rural communities about 3 hours north east of Rutherford County, on the border of the North Carolina and Virginia state line. The Rockingham County Business & Technology Center (a sister organization of Foothills Connect, and one of 7 BTC's in the state), the Rockingham Cooperative Extension and Piedmont Local Food have been working together for over a year to organize local farmers into a Local Food Coalition and adopt the Farmers Fresh Market model.

About 50 farmers in Rockingham, Stokes, Caswell and Guilford counties joined the coalition, and the online market made its very first sale last week to the Marisol restaurant in Greensboro. Brenda Sutton, Director of the county office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension, said the coalition expects the market to generate $60,000 in revenue this year and become self-sustaining by the third year.

The Rockingham County web site, www.piedmontlocalfood.com, already has a mouth-watering display of farm fresh items available for purchase by restuarants in Rockingham, Stokes, Guilford, Caswell, Forsyth, and Surry Counties. Gourmet cheeses, free range eggs, microgreens, fresh herbs, sweet potatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes are some of the tasty items up for sale.

Congratulations to Rockingham County for their hard work and dedication to building their own Farmers Fresh Market system. Please spread the word about this new, convenient way to buy fresh, local food near Greensboro and Winston-Salem!