By the light of late afternoon sun, with grass underfoot, Pace Virtual Farmers Market (PVFM) shoppers browsed through two rows of vendors of produce and other goods, paying for their preorders and doing some impulse shopping Thursday, all in about an hour. Facebook, a year ago, brought together these small-time farmers and home goods producers to the field behind Relevant Life Church in Pace. Felicia Josclyn with her husband, Joshua, began the market and is already talking expansion.
Felicia doesn’t place a high priority on getting a building. For expansion, the first thing she and her husband are looking into is lighting. When the time changes in winter, she said they move closer to the church to take advantage of the light, but as the market expands it won’t be enough. She also said expansion will mean covering increased social media costs to spread the word of the market. “People think social media is free, but it’s not,” she said.
The cost for vendors is small, according to Josclyn. She said there is a $15 application fee and the only recurring cost is a monthly sample for quality control. As the PVFM stresses non-GMO produce and free-range meat, Josclyn said the screening process is thorough, especially on the meat. Finally, the PVFM maintains customer interest, Josclyn said, by keeping a balanced variety of vendors. However, she said, “As long as we keep growing, we’ll keep adding.”
While Josclyn collected money for the raffle during June 11’s ‘SUPER market,’ she did reveal the PVFM will hold a holiday market this year. It will run roughly three hours, as is planned for the SUPER market, with a holiday theme and plenty of goods for holiday shopping.
Get in on the preorder shopping on the Pace Virtual Farmers Market Facebook page. Also find more information by emailing pvfmarket@gmail.com or call 292-8903. Also see the May 27 edition of the Santa Rosa Press Gazette for details on the upcoming SUPER market.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Shopping in the grass is a gas