Riverside Arts Market

The local blogs and news sources have been all over the opening of the Riverside Art's Market so there's little we can say that hasn't already been covered. Regardless, the addition of an art/craft/produce market of this magnitude to the Jacksonville scene is more than appreciated and we wouldn't want to give the impression that we were neglecting the area's latest step towards creating a vibrant local culture.

Every Saturday from 10am to 4pm, the area underneath the Fuller Warren Bridge in Riverside explodes into a hive of commerce. The number of booths far exceeds what you may estimate on first glance but the magnitude of the affair becomes far more apparent as you make your way back towards the water. Fresh produce, paintings, sculptures, plants, apparel, crafts, food, and entertainment, all produced by local (or semi-local) people. If you want to discover what Jacksonville is all about then this might be a good place to start. You may be surprised at what your neighbors have been up to.

Parking is a bit spotty. Unless you have difficulties, I'd recommend stashing the car a good distance from the festivities and enjoying the pleasant walk to the market. Maybe if city officials see people attempting to walk around town they might put some money towards facilitating such activity. One can only hope.

Be forewarned, the market will be packed and I, for one, hope it continues. Though it may be a little anxiety inducing for us agoraphobes, the large crowds only guarantee that this service will be perpetuated. For those fond of taking their quadrupeds with them on such ventures, it appears that [well-behaved] dogs are welcome. This, of course, means that there's a definite poo on shoe risk. And trust me, this is not just a theory but, quite unfortunately, a tested fact.

You've heard it everywhere else and now here. Arts, crafts, plants, produce, and lots of food to be had at the Riverside Arts Market. You may even recognize many favorites from the Beaches Green Market and the St. Augustine Farmer's Market. Fun for the whole family. Bring the dog (and please bring a plastic bag). Oh, and bring cash.

Riverside Arts Market
Saturday, April to December
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Under the Fuller Warren Bridge

Beach Boulevard Flea Market

We've been on a local food / Farmer's Market kick lately (and I hope, for the sake of the planet, these become more prevalent) but as far as I'm aware, there are no Farmer's Markets in Jacksonville's Southside. However, certain sections of the Beach Boulevard Flea Market could serve as a viable substitute.

I had never even noticed the place before randomly stumbling upon it online a few months ago. Even then I was never able to register its presence whenever I drove by. Sure, I guess I'd seen the big Flea Market sign stretching towards the sky but something prevented me from understanding that the sign was indicating the Flea Market's existence at that very location and not merely advertising that somewhere in Jacksonville a flea market was in full swing. Perhaps my powers of observation aren't as sharp as I thought, or maybe the fact that the Flea Market, owned by and located next to an Atlantic Self-Storage, looks exactly like an Atlantic Self-Storage made it invisible to me.

Whatever the cause of my inability to see the place, it was the the suggestion of a coworker that made me commit to scheduling a visit one Saturday morning with the promise of finding some strange and exotic fruits.

According to the verbiage on the web page, there are "over 800 booths selling furniture, produce, computers, electronics, bikes, lawn mowers, clothes, collectibles, antiques, games, pets & a whole lot more. Open 7 days a week."

Now, if you've ever been to a flea market before, you'll probably know what to expect from the majority of those 800 booths. We headed in through the main entrance after braving the nightmare parking situation and almost left within the span of a couple minutes. There were two produce stalls along that one corridor but neither were displaying any of the exotic wares I had been promised (and I wasn't about to ask if they were hiding any under the counter). All of the other stalls were filled with, shall we say, the standard flea market "niche" commodities. To a very specific target market, many of these items have incredible significance and monetary worth. To the rest of us, it's just a pile of trash and my mounting unease almost led me to abandon the place in a fit of agoraphobic anxiety.

Thankfully my obsession with finding the exotic fruit compelled me to race around the perimeter of the market until I finally stumbled upon my hidden treasure. Along the Western edge is where the bulk of the fresh fruit and vegetables are being hawked. Many of the stall operators are foreign and bring both the produce of their native land and the market culture that long ago faded from the American landscape.

There is a huge selection of the standard domestic fare alongside a great variety of some strange, exotic items. Prices are quite reasonable and I was able to score a bounty of interesting items for relatively little except for my purchase of the legendary durian which set me back $13. Anybody interested in reading about these strange finds and other weird foods can wander over to Edible Oddities where I'll eventually get around to posting pictures and details of the produce I picked up during this trip.

Again, the Beach Boulevard Flea Market is open 7 days a week but I've been told that the weekends are best for the groceries. And who knows, maybe some of you out there will even be interested in the other non-edible items on offer at the hundreds of other stalls. Feel free to comment with any interesting finds and please let me know if you stumble across anyone selling time... I need to somehow get ahold of more than what I'm currently being alloted.

Beach Boulevard Flea Market
11041 Beach Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32246
(904) 645-5961

Beaches Green Market

Every Saturday, from 2 - 5pm, a horde of local farmers, food preparers, craft makers, and other vendors descend upon Atlantic Beach to peddle their wares at the Beaches Green Market.

One thing I miss about living in St. Augustine is the Saturday morning farmer's market at the amphitheater. While I didn't often go because I wouldn't remember until it was too late (hours are from 8am - noon), I did greatly appreciate scoring fresh fruits and vegetables for relatively little money every time I managed to make it. The only farmer's market I knew about in Jacksonville was the one on Beaver Street, just north of the Riverside/Avondale area. Whereas there are a great number of stalls there, I didn't really get the comfortable farmer's market vibe from the one visit I paid the place a few years ago.

I don't remember how I found out about the Beaches Green Market, I'm assuming either directly or indirectly through a perusal of the blogs on Jax Reader. Either this place doesn't go out of it's way to promote itself or the Firefox Adblock plugin has successfully migrated to my brain because I was shocked (although not surprised) to hear of its existence and immediately scheduled a visit for the next Saturday.

The market is fairly small but swarming with people. There are currently 26 vendors listed on the website for the current season. I'm going to shamefully plagiarize that list and include it here for the people who may not be inclined to click on the link above:

• Twinn Bridges Herb Farm Heirloom vegetables and vegetable plants, herb plants, jams, pickles, honey. Located in MacClenny. Pesticide-Free. Some supplemented produce from area farms. They also donated herb plants to fill our community garden beds!


• Down to Earth Organic Farm All organic vegetables, herb bunches, and flowers. Fun heirloom varieties. All organic, located in Jacksonville.


• Musickal Acres Pecans in Season. Also a variety of vegetables and organic eggs. Pesticide-Free, aiming to be organic. Located in MacClenny. Some supplemented produce from area farms.


• Ashlin Farms All-natural beef. Both grain-finished and grass-finished, all pasture raised. No antibiotics, animal by-products, or growth hormones. Located in Jacksonville.


• Alvarez Farms Located in Raiford, Alvarez brings us local, conventional produce.


• NCL Farms NCL brings us a variety of mostly Naturally Grown produce from small farmers all over Florida.


• Grower's Alliance Coffee A Jacksonville-based coffee company. The owners are originally from Kenya, from where they currently import their organic coffee beans. Coffee is locally roasted.


• Arbonne Vegan body-care products in all recycled packaging.


• Annie Clydes Homemade deserts, such as miniature pecan and sweet potato pies, cakes, and brownies.


• Turtle Island Natural Foods Our local health food store, Turtle Island sells delicious homemade organic dips, spreads, and salad dressings, as well as a selection of local organic produce. They also offer organic, regional produce baskets that you can pick up weekly at the Market. They are donating the tool shed for the community garden!


• Jaxma Orchid Greenhouse Large variety of orchids from a local family greenhouse.


• Bone Appetite All-natural dog and cat treats, as well as hand-sewn pet collars and toys.


• Earthen Jewelry Designs Lil sells her handcrafted jewelry, specializing in natural stones and handmade clay beads.


• Cognito Farm Cognito joins us a couple times a month, bringing their free-range all-natural broiler chickens, eggs, beef, goat cheese and milk, and organically grown produce.


• Maria's Bakery Maria sells a huge variety of baked goods, such as whole grain breads, calzones, cookies, etc.


• Porters and Importers Beth travels the world in order to find fair-trade products made by small organizations. She has a variety of neat products, such as jewelry, purses, toys, etc.


• My Eco Organic Kettle Corn They started as a local store, specializing in ecological home products... now they are featured at the market with organic treats such as kettle corn and shaved ice.


• St. Augustine Crab Cake King Arthur serves crab cakes from Fernandina, as well as coconut shrimp.


• Shoe House Studio Melanie melts wine bottles into cheese trays, bowls, and decorative wall hangings-- recycling bottles into something functional. She also makes ceramic jewelry and soap dishes from clay and glass.


• Ocean Bottom Custom Crafts Donna makes natural soaps from goat's milk, avocado, cucumber, and shea butter. She also makes tote bags from recycles fabric samples.


• Josey's Honey Amanda sells a variety of this local honey from well-managed hives.


• Afric Boutique Princess Trinity creates customized skin care from a variety of butters, including shea, avocado, and cacao, brought directly from family plantations in Kenya.


• FiFi's Granola Maribeth sells her homemade granola, with a variety of different flavors.


• Natural Solutions Karen Sparkman makes a variety of herbal salves, teas, sprays and balms to help all of your ailments. All are made from organically grown herbs.


• Shakti Life Kitchen Shakti is a local vegan, raw food cafe. They bring organic treats such as flax crackers, buckwheat beans, blue corn chips, and seed cheese.


• Charlie's Citrus bCharlie is a long-time local and grower of organic citrus. He has a great variety, including several kinds of grapefruit, tangerines, meyer lemons and more.

Fruits, vegetables, fresh meat, hygienic products, snacks, coffee, tea, flowers, and crafts; there's a lot of variety represented in such a small space. Again, I totally stole the above from the Beaches Green Market website but I feel that the above vendors definitely deserve as much promotion as possible.

Being a hopeless coffee addict, I'd like to give a special shout out to Grower's Alliance Coffee who work with farmers in Africa to provide single origin, organic and fair-trade coffees. The beans are roasted here in Jacksonville the night before you purchase them at the market and will only cost you about as much as an equivalent amount of Starbucks coffee beans. And while I'm not much of a flower appreciator myself, preferring instead to grow edible plants, the amazing orchids at the Jaxma Orchid Greenhouse tent are a must-see for anyone stopping by the market.

There's nothing like fresh produce. Eating a tomato straight off the vine is one of the most sublime experiences I've ever had the privilege to undergo with any regularity. But while they don't bring the living vine, the freshness of the vegetation is unparalleled in super markets. And until Native Sun opens a Jax Beach branch, this is pretty much the best local option the salt water people of East Duval county have to for fresh, organic produce.

But before I go, I must relate one tragic detail about my visit which left me a little disappointed. I did not see this guy:

And while my disappointment hasn't put me off visiting again, I think my trips would be more frequent if Carrot Man were a regular feature.

Beaches Green Market
Every Saturday
2- 5 PM
Jarboe Park, Neptune Beach
(intersection of A1A and Florida Blvd.)