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Photo by Suze Garcia-Stam

Best Place to Buy Fresh Produce: Soda City Market

By Suze Garcia-Stam

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Hours: Saturday: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

0.7 miles, 4-minute drive from the Horseshoe

Every Saturday the noise of music, families, students and locals fill the air on Main Street in Columbia. The smell of kettle corn, baked goods, and delicious food on a hot grill infiltrates the noses of everybody passing by. However, if you’re looking for something a bit healthier, farmers bring their produce and offer the best in-season fruits and vegetables. Both students and families alike flock to these produce stands for the affordable and quality alternatives to produce at the supermarket.

Soda City Market is a producer-only market which means all the vendors must make or grow what they are selling. This attracts a lot of small businesses and Columbia farmers. A popular produce stand offers a “$10 box” where all the produce you can fit into that box comes out to only $10. This explains why you may see people walking around with boxes of different vegetables and fruits. Other produce stands offer a large variety of produce and some will even throw in a free banana or something similar when you are checking out!

Produce stands at the market are some of the more popular vendors, as anyone can see from their ever-present long lines. Going every week to the Soda City Market will definitely change the way you look at the sad bagged broccoli at the grocery store!