Expect more choices at this year’s installment of the Richmond County Farmer’s Market when it opens this weekend.

The market is set to kickoff the season Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Harrington Square on Washington Street in downtown Rockingham. It will be open each Saturday until November.

Market President Jackie Sherrill said public interest in supporting local agriculture has grown over the past several years.

“The big thing now is everybody wants to eat local food and know where it’s coming from,” Sherrill said. “That’s something we hear every day, and I don’t think it’s a trend that’s going away anytime soon.”

She attributes the trend, in large part, to increased public awareness of general health concerns, but says there are other factors at play.

“We’ve had a lot of, I guess you would call them food scares, like the contaminated tomatoes and the salmonella outbreaks,” Sherrill said. “When you know where your food source is, that helps your peace of mind more than buying food from, in many cases, foreign countries, and you also lose so much nutritional value when you have to wait so long for the food to get from the farm to the dinner table.

“Eating locally grown foods is just one of the easiest and simplest ways to stay healthy.”

Acting Richmond County Cooperative Extension Director Paige Burns pointed out that these are “timely concerns,” especially with the prevalence of childhood obesity and diabetes in Richmond County, but there is another benefit of shopping at the farmer’s market.

“And that is economic,” Burns said Wednesday. “Some people are concerned that buying food from the farmer’s market may cost more money, but you have to consider that the food you’re buying is much fresher than food you buy at the grocery store. It has traveled many fewer miles, and in many cases was picked just hours before you buy it.

“Also, you’re buying from your neighbor, so more of your money is going to stay in the county, and that benefits everyone in the county.”

Sherrill said the biggest change in the market this year is the addition of more farmers to sell their products.

“We’ve had about 10 vendors sign up this year,” Sherrill said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they all will be there every Saturday, but they will be there throughout the season.”

Some of the items people can choose from Saturday include strawberries, lettuce, radishes, sweet potatoes, collards, spring onions, greenhouse tomatoes, turnips and handmade wood crafts, according to Sherrill.

Later in the season, more items will be offered, including corn, green beans, peas, melons, local honey, okra, “and just about everything you can imagine, or grow in Richmond County,” Sherrill said.

All vendors at the Richmond County Farmer’s Market live within 20 miles of Rockingham, and produce the food or products they are selling on their farms.

Questions about the market, or more information on the benefits of local agriculture and consumption, should be directed to the Richmond County Cooperative Extension Office located at 123 Caroline St. in Rockingham. The phone number is 997-8255.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.