A Simpler Place Farm & Market, located at 9903 Carr Rd. in Riverview, is a great local resource where the community can connect with sustainable sourced, local food. A Simpler place promotes the good, slow food movement. They do this through a farm market store, delivery of local and organic food boxes and offering exciting rotating monthly events.
A Simpler Place is owned by Renee Watley. It is situated on a beautiful three and one quarter acre of land nestled on Carr Rd., just off of Boyette Rd. It consists of the farmer’s market, which is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They have gardens, a chicken coop, bee hives, an outdoor community event space and a compost run by Suncoast Compost.
Recently, A Simpler Place was awarded a three-year grant from the USDA. The grant will be used, in part, to grow agritourism in Riverview at A Simpler Place. Watley said, “We want to be the resource in the community that helps connect you to your food. We want to promote local food and provide small farmers with a place to sell their food.”
Watley started A Simpler Place in 2012. “I had a poor relationship with food, and I wanted to seek out real whole food. I realized there were other people who felt the same way,” explained Watley. A Simpler Place started as food delivery service. It then expanded into a farmer’s market and now they have expanded into a brick and mortar building complete with a store, kitchen and community event space.
The USDA Grant will allow A Simpler Place to expand store hours and bring more local, organic food to the community. The grant will also allow them to expand their partnership with Suncoast Compost, which is run by Kali Rabaut ,who is also the Education Director for A Simpler Place.
Rabaut said, “This place is not just about food. It is a place where you can broaden your mind and appreciation of what it means to be human.”
For more information on the food boxes, classes, camps and events offered by A Simpler Place, please visit www.asimplerplace.farm.
