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ASCENDENT INDEPENDENTS
Produce Reigns at Floral Park Market
Premier operation features a plethora of organic and local options. BY BOB JOHNSON
Atlanta has become one of the major produce hubs in the country, with major operations bringing fruits and vegetables into the State Farmers’ Market from throughout Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and beyond, and shipping it back out throughout the Southeast and up the Eastern Seaboard.
Within the metropolitan area, two of the four largest retailers in the country — Kroger and Publix — each command roughly 25% of the market. But less than a mile down the road from one of the Kroger superstores, a neigh- borhood market is reviving — for a modern demographic — the tradition of the produce store as the link between consumers and the nearby farmers who feed them.
“Produce is a big part of our business model; local produce even more so,” says Michelle Olsen, who owns Floral Park Market along with her husband James. “We specialize in organics, prepared meals, the freshest produce and beautiful owers. We have amazing local vendor partners that allow us to o er the very best in locally sourced organic produce.”
Local organic produce is the major attrac- tion bringing consumers to this high-end market housed in a modest structure.
“Floral Park Market takes great pride in o ering produce from local farmers,” according to the website. “In addition to supporting local farmers, we are committed to o ering our valued customers organic and naturally grown produce.”
Nearly all of the high-end produce sold at this modest market building comes from Georgia, and most of it is grown and harvested by family farmers just 60 miles or so from the store and distributed by a unique aggregator of family farm products.
“We have a conglomerate we work with,” notes Olsen. “Collective Harvest gets produce from smaller organic farmers around Athens, GA. e individual farms don’t have the quan- tity or experience to give us the volume we need. ey usually have CSA’s [Community Support
Agriculture] they need to serve, and we were at the bottom of the list.”
Floral Park maintains relations with a few individual farmers. e market also sources some produce from more mainstream whole- salers. “I work with some of the brokers at the State Farmers Market to get things like tomatoes or peaches from South Carolina,” says Olsen.
But Collective Harvest is looking to be the solution that lets Floral Park o er a reliable supply of fresh fruits and vegetables grown by relatively small family farmers.
“ is is our rst season with them, and it’s been great,” says Olsen.
is group began four years ago when a few family farmers outside Athens decided that pooling their harvests would improve the business for all of them.
“We began when three of our member farms — Diamond Hill Farm, Front Field Farm and Full Moon Farm — decided that instead of competing, we would collaborate to run our wholesale and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs,” according to the Collective Harvest website. “By pooling together our growing power, we have much greater produce availability. And by combining our resources, we have been able to hire a few full-time employees to run Collective Harvest. at means that we farmers get more time to
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FLORAL PARK MARKET
focus on growing and harvesting crops.” Word of the reliable supply of very fresh organic produce has spread throughout the Berkeley Park and Loring Heights neighbor- hoods, and has also earned Floral Park a loyal group of upscale or health-conscious consumers. “We have very wealthy people come in or send their nannies,” says Olsen. “We also have a hipster crowd of young people focused on healthy eating, and young families, too, that
want to eat healthy.”
Michelle’s husband, Jim, started Floral Park
as a wholesale ower supplier after he moved to Atlanta from Long Island, NY, nearly 20 years ago. e market still features dazzling oral displays alongside the wide variety of fruits and vegetables. For Michelle, Floral Park Market represents a connection to farmers that goes back ve generations, as she rst learned the love of the land on her family’s dairy farm in rural Connecticut from her father, a fourth-gen- eration farmer. pb
FACT FILE:
Floral Park Market
775 Trabert Ave NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
Hours: Mon – Fri 9 am to 7 pm
Sat 10 am to 4 pm; Sun 11am to 4 pm 404-367-0200 www. oralparkmarket.com
PRODUCE BUSINESS / AUGUST 2019 / 15