From fruit stands to festivals, Plant City has some of the best local, fresh produce that vendors have to offer.
Culinary Institute of America graduate and Tampa native Georgea Snyder knows that. The 26-year-old personal chef recently moved back to Tampa from New York City and has landed a new gig: market manager of Tampa’s Downtown Market.
Snyder is looking for farms and vendors in Plant City that grow local produce to join the market, which kicks off this week and will run through May.
“The focus of our market is local farms and producers who are using local ingredients,” Snyder said. “The goal of the market is to support these local farms and encourage more smaller, sustainable farms to keep doing what they’re doing.”
Snyder is familiar with the farms of Plant City: Her uncle has a medium-sized farm in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World. She hopes that people will be willing to make the drive to Tampa to participate.
BACK TO BASICS
After Snyder graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2010, she worked for two years as the market manager for multiple farmers markets in New York. At one point, she was running three markets at once.
The markets gave vendors and farms an opportunity to sell their goods without a middle man, a practice Snyder hopes to continue with Tampa’s Downtown Market.
Still, Tampa’s Downtown Market will have a twist on the organic, GMO-free markets that have been sprouting across the nation. In addition to her focus on attracting farmers and vendors with local products rather than resellers, Snyder also wants transparent farmers who are willing to explain how they grow their crops and why.
For example, if a vendor sells carrots at the market, the vendor would have the name of the farm, how the crop is grown and what pesticides or sprays, if any, were used.
“Farmers can explain processes and why they do things,” Snyder said. “Just because a vegetable is sprayed doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad.”
At other farmers markets, Snyder has noticed that customers don’t always question the products they’re buying, even when they buy from resellers. Customers may assume that a product is organic or local.
“(People) have this idea that when they walk into markets, the food is safe,” Snyder said. “They don’t always realize what they’re buying. Not that the vendors are lying, just people make their own assumptions.”
Snyder believes educating market customers would be beneficial to all parties involved in the market.
MEET THE MANAGER
Snyder’s interest in cooking began in the Culinary Operations Academy at Chamberlain High School in Tampa. After discovering her talent, Snyder was encouraged to pursue a job in the industry by her teacher, Erik Young. Later, Young introduced Snyder to Tampa’s Downtown Market.
Snyder became a teaching assistant for the baking program at Chamberlain, and worked as a line cook and hostess at Outback Steakhouse.
Following her high school graduation, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. There, Snyder learned about the farm-to-table movement.
The movement piqued Snyder’s interest, and she began visiting farms in the Hudson Valley with her friends. Following her interest in farms, Snyder completed a food-and-wine seminar in Spain, where she discovered the popularity of markets that focused on locally produced goods.
Snyder obtained her bachelor’s degree in restaurant management and hospitality from the Culinary Institute of America in 2010 and began applying to farm-to-table restaurants in New York City.
She had little luck until she came across an ad for a green-market manager. Although the position called for someone with an economics degree, Snyder was offered the position — and gladly accepted.
“It actually was paying better than restaurants, and it was full time,” Snyder said.
She began working as a green market manager in 2011. She held it for two years.
With her cooking experience, Snyder also was able to perform cooking demonstrations at the market. She dabbled as a personal chef, a bakery operations manager and again as a market manager until her return to Tampa in early 2015.
Now, she is looking forward to managing a market that is focused on local food, transparency and education.
“One of the ways you can educate people is know how (goods) are produced,” Snyder said.
Snyder currently has 21 vendors for the market.
“I like to focus on the seasonality of the area,” she said.
Snyder is looking for interested farms and vendors for local milk and dairy products, as well as pork, duck, produce and fruit. The market runs every week from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays in Tampa.
“I still want to support these farms and give them a place to sell their goods,” Snyder said.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
GMOs: Genetically modified organisms. The genetic material in an organism, such as a vegetable, has been artificially changed.
Organic: In relation to produce and other crops, organic means to cultivate without using sprays or changing the genetic material of the crop.
GET INVOLVED
Tampa’s Downtown Market
WHEN: 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays
WHERE: 410 N. Franklin St., Tampa
COST: $25 per market for agricultural vendors; $35 per market for non-agricultural vendors
Email: SnyderGeorgea@gmail.com
Website: Tampa DowntownMarket.com
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.