Farm to Cart: For this issue of Flagpole, focusing as it does on local agriculture, I felt the time was right to return to Farm Cart, Athens’ most famous food truck and the one that has tied itself most strongly to produce from the area. Originally set up on the patio of Farm 255, it’s since been cut loose, a move that makes it more accessible to the community in some ways (i.e., more places, more times) and less in others (no regular spot at lunch, when it was one of the most delightful options in town). 

Farm Cart does have a mostly reliable gig at Normal Bar (1365 Prince Ave.), on Thursday nights, when it sets up sometime between 5 and 5:45 p.m., depending on whether its technical side is on the fritz or the proprietor is by herself and stressed out as a result. Then again, if you are not starving and are happy to hang out on the back patio or inside with a beverage, you can wait until it’s all ready to go. 

The menu at the moment seems to alternate between burgers and more experimental fare (an Indian night, a St. Patrick’s Day theme with mini-shepherd’s pies, Japanese noodles), but the night I made it by was the basics. As ever, the cart serves a mix of veg and meat options, generally priced between $6 and $8. 

The “Normal Burger,” made with grass-fed Moonshine beef, cheddar, pickles, onion and “special sauce,” is a nice thing, a cut above the average burger. The pickles, in particular, are a highlight. The Wagyu hot dog is topped with hot chow chow (which steals the show), mustard and celery salt and, if you take it to go, the large handful of potato chips that come on the side will end up on top, adding their own flavor to the mix. The veggie dog is a good run at an impossible task, topped with a veggie chili that likewise has the failings of its genre (too sweet, too bean-y). Someday, someone will make a veggie sausage about which I can muster enthusiasm, and this one’s closer than most, but it’s still not there. 

It’s easy to get jaded by Farm Cart’s commitment to local ingredients and street food made quickly but with attention, but you shouldn’t. Complain as I might about its downsides, the trailer remains a great addition to Athens.

Farm to Market: If you really miss the Athens Farmers Market while it’s gone, in the winter months, or if you want an option at different times during the week the rest of the year, the Athens Eastside Fresh Market is open in A Weekend A’Fair (790 Gaines School Rd.) Wednesday and Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. On a blustery pre-spring day, even with little hint of greenery poking up from the earth, there were still some options.

Two pleasant fellows, one chattier than the other, were set up outside in the parking lot, retailing free-range meats and chemical-free if not certified-organic veggies. Big, pretty turnips rang up at $2 a pound and came with a family recipe that braised them in butter, sugar and white wine vinegar. Rutabaga beckoned as well. 

Dogwood Road Farm (the chatty fellow) also makes and retails its own line of pear-based preserves, due to a bumper crop of the fruit. Of the three options—pear butter, pear jam and a hot pear jelly—the last was the best, mimicking the pepper jelly of the Northwest and erring on the side of spicy rather than sweet. Its owner also mentioned the upcoming Dr. Bob Rhoads Seed Swap, coming up on Apr. 6 at Grove Creek Farm. 

This year will be the 16th the event has been held, and it aims to educate about heirloom seed saving as well as provide a forum for it. Wagon rides for kids, Oglethorpe Fresh Market vendors on hand with produce and crafts, food for sale and live music complete the picture (directions can be had on the farm’s website). Inside the antiques mall, there are often free-range chicken and duck eggs for sale at the counter, plus a small selection of unpromising but surprisingly tasty baked things that includes sweet flautas and empanadas (the former good, the latter too bready), blondies (yes) and chocolate-covered pretzels (no). 

When the weather warms up and the earth begins to loosen its grip once again, the vendors fill the lot and wrap around the corner. It’s a nice option to have on an underserved side of town. Make sure to bring cash or your checkbook.

What Up?: If you haven’t been on our website lately, know this: Marker 7 is open in Five Points with seafood, Orient Mart is retailing Asian groceries in the Village at Cedar Shoals Shopping Center, Rooter’s Grocery and BBQ is doing take-out on Whitehall Road in what was most recently Sisters Creole but feels like the reincarnation of Jot ‘Em Down, and The Branded Butcher is taking over the Georgia Theatre rooftop restaurant with an Apr. 2 grand reopening planned.