by TM Petaccia

Charlotte is rich with hyperlocal farmers’ markets. They can be found weekly throughout the city. For the most part, the model is the same: various farmers, food artisans, and sometimes crafters set up their own tables and shoppers stroll table-to-table to purchase their provisions.

Elizabeth Anne Dover-Bishop of The Farm at Dover Vineyards saw a different way.

With her newly rebranded The Neighborhood Farmers Market, Dover-Bishop sets up in four Charlotte communities each week, April-October, with fresh produce from her own farm plus other area farmers, along with select food crafts from local vendors, offering an aggregated one-stop local farms shopping experience which to her addresses one of the drawbacks of the traditional model.

“I understand what it is like to go to a farmer’s market and not make any money,” she says, “and that’s very frustrating. You can spend maybe three or four hours of your day there, and you haven’t sold enough really to be there, but you still have all of this produce to sell. So we just pay them for their stuff outright, or sometimes do consignment deals, and in turn sell them directly to you.”

It all started with her Plaza Midwood Farmers Market in 2011, which actually started in Elizabeth. “[Former Customshop owner] Trey Wilson had us set up at Customshop on Elizabeth Avenue to sell produce,” Dover-Bishop says. “A little after that, we relocated to The Common Market on Commonwealth Avenue, where we still operate today.”

This year, The Neighborhood Farmers Market returns to its Plaza Midwood origins on Saturdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., as well as the Local Loaf in NoDa on Thursday evenings, 5-7 p.m. — a location Dover-Bishop has been operating since 2020. This year, she’s bringing her concept to LoSo on Wednesday evenings, 5-7 p.m., at The Everyday Market, plus the Wesley Heights neighborhood Saturdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Rhino Market West.

“We looked at demographics and possible partners,” she says. “We also looked around to the different places our customers suggested. We thought about the customer experience and the synergy behind it. We picked the locations where we saw good foot traffic and good demand.”

In addition to the weekly popup markets, Dover-Bishop also participates in the more traditional Saturday morning University City Farmers Market as well as provides weekly CSA pickups at The Market at 7th Street in Uptown.

“We work with a wide range of farmers,” Dover-Bishop says. “Some are super small. We have someone who just sells us eggs from their backyard chickens, as well as large farms, like Bush ‘n Vine and Barbee Farms, but everything is sourced from local farms. I know what I’m good at growing and I know what other people are good at growing. We should be able to take the best from all of these different growers and work together.”

In addition to local produce, The Neighborhood Farmers Market also works with select local food artisans to round out the market offerings, such as Dukes Bread and Nana’s Porch pimento cheese. She also does some private labeling with Garnet Gals jams and jellies, plus Bleu Barn Bistro sauces.

A key part of her business model is the subscription and distribution of CSA “veggie boxes.” Each location also functions as a CSA pickup location. “That’s what allows us to staff the locations,” Dover-Bishop says. “We rely on those committed customers who show up every week to the farmers’ market to help make this a success.”

Although expansion into other neighborhoods is always under consideration, Dover-Bishop is standing pat for now. “Personally, I think this is good for right now,” she says. “I would like to get everything solid before we expand any further. However, I have my eyes on a few locations, but they might require further study before I say I really want to go into those areas.”

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