With gratitude for our many customers, visitors, growers, and exhibitors, The Shops at Sea Pines Center re-launches a popular perennial on March 16. The Farmers & Makers Market in The Shops at Sea Pines Center appears again, for the eighth year, with more of everything you told us you love.
More fresh, local produce; more seafood; more breads and cheeses; more crafts and more artisans will be on display, Tuesdays from March 16 til fall, as a result of some digging we did in the off-season.
What Growers and Artisans Told Us
We interviewed 24 of the area’s best-qualified growers, producers, and exhibitors to discover what the people they meet here like best. We saw the Farmers & Makers Market continue to attract a loyal following in Sea Pines, and to make new friends among Hilton Head Island visitors, even through all the uncertainties of 2020, and we set out to find out why people never stopped coming.
Our facilities, our location, the beauty of our setting, and the freedom of an open-air plaza enabled the Farmers & Makers Market to carry on, delighting residents and visitors alike, even as they practiced the sensible precautions we all learned to take during 2020.
From what we learned, we invited new growers and artisans to join us for the 2021 season, building up the attractions that people have enjoyed here the most, and adding a few straight-from-the-truck locations around the plaza to put more growers within easy reach.
The Real Attraction is Connection
We were reminded, too, of a fact that’s sometimes overlooked. People enjoy our Farmers & Makers Market for reasons that don’t necessarily meet the eye. In addition to the inviting colors of fresh, local produce and helpful or decorative handmade objects, a Farmers Market is a place to connect with community as well as with nature. And it’s true not only in the plaza of The Shops at Sea Pines Center. The lessons of farmers markets across the country lead us to the same conclusion.
The Peachtree Road Farmers Market in Buckhead is known as the place where busy Atlanta career couples reconnect with their friends after a hectic week at work. At the Melrose Place Farmers Market in L.A., movie folk stroll a little slower to be seen themselves, and to check what’s going on, as they gather in the beauty of some of the world’s most colorful fresh vegetables.
Where People Discover What’s Happening
As for visitors, one of those Hollywood families says that the first thing they do when moving to another city for a couple of months to shoot a movie is to get to the local farmers market. “It’s just the best way to get connected in a community,” one said. “I find out what’s going on, and what people are thinking about it.”
We heard the same this winter as we did our research on how to make The Farmers & Makers Market in The Shops at Sea Pines Center more inviting than ever. All over the Carolina coast, and in the many cities that send their vacationers to America’s favorite island, people come to The Shops at Sea Pines Center for the vibe, the fresh feeling, and the inside information that makes them want to come back.
Please join us here in the plaza, beginning March 16 and every Tuesday til fall. With more fresh, local produce; more seafood; more breads and cheeses; more crafts, and more artisans, we’re working harder than ever to make your visit one you’ll remember with pleasure.
