Project: Wonderful Traveling Farmers Market
Introduction
The Wonderful Walton Economic Development Alliance, in partnership with local producers and community leaders, is evaluating the potential for creating an online farmers market to serve Walton County and its surrounding areas. This initiative builds on a recent field visit to the Red Hills Small Farm Alliance in the Tallahassee region, which operates a successful model of a digital marketplace for local farm goods. With the enthusiastic support of producers who joined the visit and our organization’s Chairman Danny Glidewell, we are now moving forward to explore how this concept can be adapted and implemented in our community.
From Left to Right: Red Hills Online Market Staff, Executive Director Uriah Matthews, District 2 Commissioner Danny Glidewell, Sommer Adams, Heather Marshall, Dave Underwood.
What Is a traveling Farmers Market?
An online farmers market is a centralized, digital platform where local producers list available goods—such as fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, baked goods, plants, and more—each week for customers to purchase. Customers place orders through the website, and these are then packed and distributed through a combination of pickup sites and/or home delivery options.
This model serves as a modern solution for connecting producers with consumers in a way that supports local agriculture, increases access to fresh food, and fosters community collaboration.
You can read more directly from a local farmer attendee, Sommer Adams of Frost Lane Farms on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1P3DFtR5qg/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Vision for Walton County
The vision for Walton County’s version of an online farmers market is rooted in collaboration and accessibility. By encouraging cooperation among producers, the goal is to:
Support both large and small producers, including home bakers, gardeners, and livestock farmers
Provide consistent and convenient access to local food for residents year-round—not just on weekends
Create economic opportunities for local agricultural and food entrepreneurs
Encourage community resilience and food security
Importantly, this initiative does not intend to replace in-person farmers markets, but rather to supplement them and expand opportunities for both producers and customers.
Next Steps
We are continuing with our survey process in perpetuity. PLEASE if you have not yet completed, please do so now.
Completing these surveys gets you in the official communication loop for future communications
The surveys also provide key feedback to ensure we focus our attention appropriately
AND most importantly through the Customer Survey we are building our “customer list.” And as the program nears launch this is will be key. Today (July 25th, 2025) we have over 150 Customer Surveys. By building the Customer Survey response we also build the ability to attract producers to the program. Our goal is to acquire 1000 customer surveys within the next 30 days. Please help us by sharing on social media and amongst your friends and colleagues.
You will be hearing from our team in the next week or so via email communication to survey respondents regarding the formation of a steering committee that will bring this project to fruition. It’s important to note that not everyone can be a part of this stage of the project BUT you may be included in the decision-making process. We can see the Steering Committee utilizing the respondents of the surveys as a feedback mechanism as they move forward.
Please sign-up for future communications by completing one or both of the surveys above.
Thank you!
Updates
July 25th, 2025 - We had a successful Community Meeting on July 22nd that was attending by over 40 members of the community. Presenters included Sommer Adams of Frost Lane Farms and from the Wonderful Walton Economic Development Alliance Dave Underwood and Uriah Matthews. The presentation included;
an overview of the WWEDA,
an explanation of our focus on agriculture as part of our strategic plan
why we focused on sales and customers
our study of Red Hills Online Market
the business model
next steps on the project
formation of a committee
continue to spread the word! Share this post!
encourage survey completion
We want to stress at this point survey completion is the single most important aspect of this project at this point. It serves a couple of purposes;
Gathers important feedback from producers AND consumers
Enters all interested parties into the communication stream
And most importantly build the potential customer list that will the key value of this program at launch
Thank you all for participating in this really great project! Let’s get to 1,000 surveys from consumers!
July 15th, 2025 - We’re holding a public meeting on Tuesday, July 22nd from 5:30–6:30 PM at the Hall of Brotherhood in DeFuniak Springs to share project updates and gather community feedback on the Wonderful Traveling Farmer’s Market.
RSVPs are required to attend.
Learn more and reserve your spot here:
👉 Read the Public Meeting Announcement
