We grow what we sell!

The Growers’ Market is community in action. For growers and customers it is a way of life. In all seasons it is a sensory extravaganza: spicy petunias, roses and chives, rosemary, thyme, and lavenders, fresh peaches, ripe tomatoes, coffee and donuts frying, wind chimes, hand-scented soaps and tea bags for the bath tub. There’s a guitar player near the strawberry bed and a brother-sister duo playing bluegrass down by the coreopsis, a silversmith, and an artist in oils, stained glass; the riches of the region shared by friends and neighbors. Fresh eggs, specialty breads, cakes, pies, honey, Natural organic beef, buffalo, seafood, secondary wood products round out the product variety.

Market day is every Saturday morning, mid-March until Thanksgiving, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of 4th and ‘F’ in downtown Grants Pass. A favorite with residents and tourists, the Growers’ Market is second only to the Rogue River as an area attraction. It showcases the finest fresh fruits and vegetables growing in the Southern Oregon region, as well as secondary wood products, gourmet specialty foods, artists and crafters. Members attend from Medford, Butte Falls, Winston, Canyonville, Gold Hill, Roseburg and the Illinois Valley.

The Market’s Board of Directors, its management and its membership have a long history of community involvement in the various issues facing the area. In 1986, the Market was a founding member of the Oregon Farmers Market Assoc., started Medford’s market in cooperation with their Downtown Development Association in 1987 and helped the markets in Beaverton and Gresham with start-up. In 1989 it was part of the pilot project of WIC coupons currently used in the market system throughout Oregon. Also in 1989, the Market provided over 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as a variety of gourmet processed foods at the 1989 Agri-fair held in Portland to celebrate agriculture in the state of Oregon. In 1990, the Market, the City of Grants Pass and the Towne Center Association, along with various other state and federal agencies wrote a grant request to turn an ugly mud-hole behind the Post Office into a multi-purpose parking lot facility. It was to provide a permanent home for the Growers’ Market, parking for downtown, and a facility for celebrations and festivities in the heart of Grants Pass. After two rounds through Economic Development, the project was funded and in March of 1993, the Market opened in permanent quarters. Members of the Market provided the landscaping and irrigation and maintain both the lot where the market is held and a “green belt” area designed for pedestrian use. In 1995, the project was named the best downtown development project in the state.