The food and beverage team headed by Executive Chef and Culinary Director Gerald Schmidt at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., has been holding once-a-month Farmers’ Market events in the parking lot of the property’s Lake Club. The concept has proved to be a win-win-win for all involved, reports Schmidt: the 2,200 property- owning members at Reynolds, as well as the property’s F&B operation and its vendors.

Since the first event in June, each Farmers’ Market has been scheduled for from 8 AM to 11 AM on a selected Saturday of the month, through October. If bad weather looms (as it did in September), the event is cancelled by noon on the preceding Thursday. But when it’s been held, Schmidt reports, some 100-150 members have come and enjoyed the opportunity to get fresh meat, seafood, produce and bakery items, plus specialty items such as soaps and specialty cooking oils, from a dozen or so vendors who have been invited to participate.

Members can charge purchases to their accounts and 90% of the sales are cash-free, Schmidt says, although cash is also accepted. Vendors (who do not have to pay for the space) are then reimbursed for what they’ve sold after everything is reconciled.

“It’s really kind of easy,” says Schmidt. “It helps out our local purveyors while also giving our members an opportunity to get some incredibly fresh goods they can use in their homes. Our seafood purveyor, for example, brings shrimp that’s been yanked out of the sea the night before—that’s hard to beat.”

The Reynolds staff also sells some of its own signature items, including quarts of soup and chicken salad, that it makes extra amounts of leading up to the event. Wandering guitar and bango players, an outdoor bistro serving special breakfast items including burritos, beignets and Bloody Marys, and even a dog station with biscuits and water, all add to the special allure of the morning.

“Yes, we and our vendors get some extra revenue, but it’s really just a fun service for the membership that they love,” says Schmidt, who says the concept has been successful enough that Reynolds plans to start its season of Farmers’ Market events even earlier next year.