Local Market Coming to Brunswick County

There's a new market coming to Brunswick County, but its name probably isn't one you'll recognize.
That's because it's not one of the big grocery chains that most Southeastern North Carolina residents frequent.
Lockwood Folly Marketplace, once it's up and running in a couple of months, will be a neighborhood establishment that will sell locally grown, naturally raised food products along with an assortment of specialty gift and gourmet items.
It's coming to 48 Stone Chimney Road in Supply partly because of a grant from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, a nonprofit organization serving the state's 85 rural counties and funded by public and private sources.
Lindsay Hewett found out that her planned privately owned market had received the $50,000 building reuse and restoration grant late last month. The grant came just as she was about to begin renovation work on the 3,100-square-foot former grocery store and tax service office that had been in her family since 1963. The building had been vacant for two years. In exchange for the grant - which center officials describe as a deferred, forgivable loan - the business must create five new jobs within two years.
"We were praying that we would get it," Hewett said. "Even now, it still hasn't sunken in yet. We're certainly thankful for it."
The grant was among $3.7 million awarded by the center in August, made possible mostly because of appropriations by the N.C. General Assembly. It is Brunswick County's first since the program began in 2004, said Melody Adams, director of the center's building reuse and restoration grants program.
"It allows communities to reuse buildings that in many cases were a drain on the county's resources and were providing no real tax base or tax economy and were in many cases an eyesore," she said of the program.
Most of Lockwood Folly Marketplace's products will be from Southeastern North Carolina, with others from different regions of the state, Hewett said.
"My husband and I both value the importance of locally grown products," she said. "Not only do they taste better, but they're healthier for you as well."
Martha Warner, an agent with the Brunswick County office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension, said Hewett makes personal visits to the farms that will sell at the market to see where the products are coming from and validate growing practices.
"It's kind of like the new movement, the new way of trying to connect consumers with their food and trying to promote local foods," Warner said.
But if you think Lockwood Folly, scheduled to open on Nov. 17, is going to be your typical farmers market, think again. In addition to the regular goodies such as fresh meat, cheeses, cage-free chicken eggs, hand-dipped ice cream, sauces, plants, bottled milk and baked goods, it will offer home decor, collegiate gift items, garden flags, natural cleaning products, gourmet lunches to go, a few tables for indoor dining and a free wireless Internet connection. Hewett envisions it as both a frequent stop for locals and a tourist attraction.
Hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, log on to www.lockwoodfollymarketplace.com.