By Jason C. Mattox

The seeds for a farmer’s market in Batesville were planted Monday night when a group of nine gathered at the Batesville Public Library.

Meeting organizer Jennifer Tidwell told those in attendance that she hoped to see the farmer’s market start in the spring of 2010.

“The biggest thing I would like to see is that everything there is locally grown and sold,” she said. “We want the money spent here to go to the people in the local economy. I don’t want to see people go somewhere and buy a truckload of watermelons.”

Tidwell said those involved with the market would be encouraged to work with the local growers to get them involved.

“We would like to get information from County Agent Judd Gentry and Batesville Main Street manager Colleen Clark as we move forward,” she said.

Gentry and Clark were invited to Monday’s meeting but were unable to attend.

The first major obstacle of the market is finding a location.

During the meeting, three locations were primarily discussed- the old Big Star lot, the Downtown Square, and the old Perry’s Restaurant.

“Wherever we organize, we want to make sure it is a high traffic area,” Amy Lipe said. “We want to have it where it is going to be visible.”

“I think a farmer’s market will be good for the town,” Tidwell said. “People already buy locally, but they have to drive all over the county to get it.”

A day for the market was also a point of contention, with some growers not wanting to see the market held on a Saturday.

“You have a lot of the area growers that are part of the Oxford Farmer’s Market, and they most-likely are not going to give up that income,” one grower said. “There might be some that are able to split and have someone come to Batesville though.”

Others in attendance said Saturday was the best possible day because that is when people in town are out shopping.

“We might have to work to get the vendors, but the shoppers will be available to us on Saturday, because not a lot of people go to Oxford to shop that market,” another attendee said. “But if you did it on a Friday, you might be able to pull some of the vendors who go over to Oxford.”

A second meeting of the group was briefly discussed, but a date was not set.

Anyone wanting to join the group can contact Tidwell at jltidwell@yahoo.com.