By Gail Parsons

Special to the Effingham Herald

Sometimes when a person wants something done, they can’t wait for someone else to do it. They’ve got to step up and do it themselves. That is what Stephanie Mondt did after years of wishing there was a farmers’ market in Rincon.

Her background is in tourism management, but she also has a small home-based business — the Mini Homesteader.

“For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to sell at local markets but there has been nothing consistent in Effingham,” she said. “I’ve always been like, ‘I wish somebody would do something about that, that way I don’t have to travel outside of the county’.” 

She started reaching out to area agencies to see if it was something that would fall under their umbrella. While everyone liked the idea, no one was ready to take it on as a project. At one point the Coastal GreenSpace Guardians was going to make it one of their offerings, but upon closer examination, Mondt’s vision for the market did not fit as neatly into the CGG’s mission.

“I want this to be open to all types of vendors,” Mondt said. “We want to have a good portion of local produce, farm stuff, milk, meat — definitely the farmer-market-type vendors, but also things like cookies or soap makers. I would like to have room for people that do tumblers and local artists. It’s going to be a farmers’ and makers’ market.”

After the arrangement with CGG fell through, Mondt is regrouping and plans to apply for her own 501(c)3. However, because her vision doesn’t align with the IRS definition of a farmers’ market, Mondt is rebranding and changing the name from Rincon Farmers Market to Rincon Community Market.

Although there have been a few bumps in the road, Mondt is looking forward to having the first market in the spring and is working with the city to come up with a location and schedule. As someone who has been a vendor, she knows what makes a farmers’ market successful.

“If we want committed vendors, we need to have a consistent location,” she said. “Produce vendors especially, every week they have to either use or sell their items or they go bad. When you give them a consistent place to come and sell, I think they'll want to come back.”

She also sees the market as a place to promote sustainability practices.

“I come from four generations of farmers and see how people have impacted the quality of the soil and the bees and the pollination and the ecosystems around us,” she said. “I’ve seen firsthand how cutting down these forests and these wetlands have directly impacted my gardening at home and having to bring in bees myself or raise bees. If we don't protect that, all these home gardeners and these backyard homesteaders, or even the large-scale farmers, we're all going to start suffering.”