DOTHAN, Ala. – Fresh produce, pottery, artisan soaps and lotions, and handmade jewelry – Dothan’s annual Poplar Head Farmers Market will feature more vendors than ever before when it opens Saturday at its new downtown site.

City of Dothan and Houston County leaders congregated at 610 N. Foster Street on Monday to commemorate years-long efforts to give the farmers market more visibility and a more permanent location.

In previous years, vendors sold wares and fresh produce out of tents in the Dothan Civic Center parking lot. The outdoor market could only be hosted on weekends when there wasn’t an event booked at the Civic Center that required the parking spaces.

This year, the farmer’s market will be on a grassy empty lot owned by Houston County.

Donna Balzaratti, longtime manager of the Poplar Head Farmers Market, said 30 vendors will be at this year’s spring farmers market, more than any previous year on record, and she believes interest will continue to grow.

“I think everybody’s just looking forward to having a permanent place,” Balzaratti said. “I’ve had a greatly enhanced handcraft business. I’ve got other farmers who are contacting me from the area that I originally couldn’t get to come before so I think it’ll just continue to skyrocket.”

Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba, Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver, Visit Dothan CEO Aaron McCreight, and Jamie Bienvenu, executive director of the Downtown Dothan Redevelopment Authority, spoke about the multi-agency support of the project that will culminate in a new facility for a year-round farmers market at the site in the future.

The farmers market has received nonprofit status and is working closely with the DDRA to remediate the land that was formerly the site of the old Meadow’s Gold Ice Cream Plant, which was destroyed by a fire in November 2019.

“This Wiregrass community is founded on that agricultural community and in order to provide more opportunity for farmers to reduce their loss, we’re hoping that we’ll have a commercial kitchen in this project to them capture some of that at the end of the season, and we’re really just excited to do the year round thing,” Bienvenu said. “That also opens up opportunities for our farmers to grow other produce and products and just turn their fields over more often, which is really just going to contribute back to the local economy.”

The land is still undergoing assessment by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management due to potential environmental concerns. Bienvenu said Monday that the authority recently received an updated report from ADEM, which is under review by the board’s hired environmental consultant and will be discussed with the board concerning potential cleanup.

Balzaratti said the nonprofit will be kicking off its capital campaign soon to raise funds for the facility. At a recent DDRA meeting, Bienvenu said an artist rendering of the proposed building will be created soon to present to the public.

Millions of visitors every year travel to or through Dothan, many of whom travel through downtown. Having another attraction to promote to those visitors is “huge,” McCreight said, particularly a venue seated along downtown’s northern gateway that connects destinations at both ends of Foster Street.