Forsyth Farmer’s Market is a cornerstone of regional food security and community camaraderie.
Written by Kiki Dy
Sweet potatoes aren’t grown from seeds. They spawn from slips — one plant giving rise to the next. Savannah’s local food producers work in much the same way: one slip might give rise to a new business, while another might launch a whole market. With food prices soaring and supply chains growing more uncertain, local consumers have important reasons to visit the Forsyth Farmers’ Market and support Savannah’s farmers, fishmongers, and foragers.
Interwoven Strengths
Saturday morning in the center of Forsyth Park is a symbiotic scene. Kelly Morris, who operates Savannah Hydroponics and Organics with her husband, Andrew, comes with mason jars of homemade pumpkin butter. Katrina Hornung, who does business as The Filipino Forager, staffs her stall selling salts and preserves — and gifts Morris a sheaf of lemon grass. Meanwhile, Jacob Hammer, executive chef of Husk, chats with Billy Dugger of Billy’s Botanicals — asking him, as part of a long-running joke, “Do you have any dill by chance?” — before hauling last-minute ingredients back to his kitchen.
Marketgoers pivot between finding provisions and conversing with friends, farmers, and strangers. They chat in the Spanish-moss shade, sampling everything from sausages to cocktail shrubs with delight. However, many might not understand the extent of the reciprocity and resilience it takes for each vendor to arrive weekly with a stocked stall.
“People may see a carrot at that market and question why it’s more expensive than the grocery store,” Hornung says. But what megagrocers save in scale, farmers pay in sweat. Hornung notes the years of experience and the amount of soil prep, planting, watering, harvesting, and packaging that go into growing that carrot. That’s before you add in the market fees, setup, and coordination it takes for some of the market’s vendors to travel for hours every week.
Friendship is Fertile Soil
On her homestead, Morris, whose involvement in the market spans several years and capacities, illuminates the urgency for supporting local food systems. “The communities that stay resilient during uncertain times are the ones with strong local supply chains and personal relationships with the people who grow and produce their food,” she says.
In 2026, she and Andrew are shifting their focus to Savannah Food Hub. The hub offers hands-on workshops such as foraging walks with Hornung, barrelponics with Andrew, and canning, seeding, and other skills that help people create and maintain organic, fresh food production at home. Farm-to-table collaborations, events like their Wild Seed Plant Sale and Makers Market, and more help connect Savannah’s small-scale growers, artisanal producers, home cooks, and restaurants.
Like sweet potato slips, the food growers featured in this article are connected and regenerative. For example, Billy’s Botanicals’ seasonal “Billy’s Bags” (now available to order directly through their website) include products from the Morrises’ Tasty Farms, Swampy Appleseed Mushrooms, and more. Husk — and a dozen other local restaurants — relies on Billy and Ana Dugger for fresh florals, fish, and “the weirdest herbs ever,” says Ana, who is co-owner of the farm. “What is salad burnet?”
Hornung worked with Billy’s Botanicals when she moved here from Chicago in 2021. She then launched The Filipino Forager — which offers wild-harvested specialties, preserves, and more, as well as workshops — as a way to minimize food waste left over at the end of the market. “Billy and Ana gave me so much freedom to work with the leftover produce to create something to benefit us all,” she says. “I had foraged before, but Billy also helped introduce me to foraging in the Lowcountry.”
Fellow forager and farmers’ market institution Ancil Jacques (Swampy Appleseed Mushrooms) found his first restaurant partner when he knocked on Local 11ten Food & Wine’s door a decade ago during Hammer’s tenure there as chef. “He had a mushroom we had never seen before called a pecan truffle, which is a southern varietal that grows underneath the palm trees,” Hammer recalls. “We bought everything he had.” Through forays at different restaurants, Jacques remains Hammer’s shroom dealer.
At the Forsyth Farmers’ Market, “buy local” isn’t a catchphrase — it’s a linchpin. As a food-only market, all offerings must be grown or made within a 200-mile radius. This means vendors shoulder the burdens of seasonality, natural disasters, and more together.
“I’ve been to countless farmers’ markets, and the camaraderie between fellow farmers, chefs, and people is truly unique here,” says Hammer. “For a decade, I’ve walked through the market and known 90% of the farmers, and everybody says hi. That’s not normal in other cities.”
Feeding the Mission
Early in 2025, the Duggers’ 5-acre farm and aquaponic operation flooded for the second time due to unprecedented rainfall. Crops, revenue, and sleep were lost.
The community rallied and helped replant the farm. Fellow farmers took to social media to encourage marketgoers to buy out Billy’s Botanicals’ stock at the market. A similar situation in 2022 resulted in swift support from Repeal 33, Sobremesa, and more through mobilization and fundraising.
The past five years have marked a strenuous stretch for small farmsteads like Billy’s Botanicals. Weather has grown more erratic — heat waves, surprise frosts, and feast-or-famine rainfall — while the cost of everything from seeds to soil amendments has climbed sharply. Labor has become harder to find, supply chains are more fragile, and land is more expensive. Challenges for farmers domino into challenges for the community.
“Farmers’ markets are more than a wholesome weekend activity,” Morris says. “They are a cornerstone of regional food security.”
On March 5, Chefs + Farmers, a grassroots gala started by FARM Bluffton’s Brandon Carter, will return for a second year. Hosted at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, the evening will unite local farmers, celebrated chefs, and community leaders in support of Forsyth Farmers’ Market’s mission to provide fresh, affordable, and sustainable food to those with limited access.
“Supporting your farmers means supporting your own long-term wellbeing, your neighbors’ success, and the preservation of land stewardship and food skills that matter more now than ever,” says Morris.
A Market Menu
Walking through the Forsyth Farmers’ Market with Chef Miguel Bautista from The Emporium Kitchen & Wine Market feels like parading down a promenade. As he indulges our whims, an orange pumpkin, turnips, duck legs, suspiciously shaped yellow squash, and more fill the basket he will draw from later to create dinner.
Bautista, originally from Colombia and raised in Miami, is up for the challenge. As part of the Perry Lane Hotel’s new Market-to-Table Culinary Experience, where guests get to join the chef at the market, he accepts our picks — like a ghost pepper — with aplomb. The experience, which includes the market trip and dinner, is available every Saturday to hotel guests and the general public for $250 a person.
We redeem insights and smiles from a menagerie of vendors, such as The Filipino Forager (Katrina Hornung), who educates us on beauty berries — a native plant that tastes like a cross between grape and hibiscus — as well as Greg’s Hot Sauce, Savannah Shrub, and Bautista’s favorite, Schmoe Farm.
As Bautista concocts our courses, we enjoy poolside sips before arriving at Emporium for the 5 p.m. meal reveal, merrily buzzed.
Six bespoke courses have been alchemized from our market selections. An inimitable swordfish crudo makes intelligent use of the ghost pepper plucked from Gannon Organics. The squashes arrive tempura-battered with a fermented hot sauce brightened by Hornung’s beauty berry syrup on the side. Bautista also serves a simple salad with roasted turnips, duck confit, and coffee-crusted ribeye, taking time to stop and expound on each course.
After the delicious and inventive food, sommelier-selected wine pairings, and a glimpse into Bautista’s creative process, we leave in a full bacchanalian blush.
