Farmers Market Celebrates 25 Years as Big Producer
Published Dec 02, 2008
The Pee Dee State Farmers Market draws 250,000 visitors a year.
A fixture in Florence since 1983 is the Pee Dee State Farmers Market, which draws more than 250,000 visitors each year.
The market on U.S. Highway 52 near the Florence-Darlington border is open year-round and operates from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The market, owned by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, is on a 55-acre site about a mile from an Interstate 95 exchange. The market includes a 45,000-square-foot enclosed drive-through area, where produce, food products, horticultural items and other merchandise is sold.
“Even though we’ve been around for more than 25 years, there are still some people in Florence County who don’t know we’re here,” says Tre Coleman, manager of Pee Dee State Farmers Market.
The market is situated at the former Clemson University tobacco experiment station, with a 100-year-old dairy barn as part of the facility. The barn houses a pecan kitchen, pottery shop and restaurant. A log-cabin-style gift shop sells garden and greenhouse products.
An 8,500-square-foot, enclosed, heated-and-cooled building is in the works, the first new structure since the market opened. The new building will expand the market’s roster of 24 vendors.
Besides fruit and vegetable vendors, two nurseries operate on site along with pottery vendors and even a bakery. The market also hosts a Southern Plant & Flower Festival each spring that draws about 40,000 people, and a Fall Plant & Flower Show that attracts 25,000 visitors.
On any given day, the market is bustling with shoppers looking over fresh produce, flowers and other food items.
“The vendors and tenants at Pee Dee State Farmers Market are quite diverse, which makes every day here so interesting,” says Coleman.
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Staff
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