Northside Jacksonville Farmers Market: A Saturday at Eartha's

At 4850 Moncrief Road, a produce table goes up every Saturday at 10 a.m. and comes down at 2 p.m. Some of what's on it was grown a short walk away, on a farm with 240 blueberry bushes, fruit trees, grape vines, herbs, greens, tomatoes and cucumbers. The rest comes from other local farmers, because Eartha's Farm & Market brings in their goods to fill out the table.

All of that onsite growing happened on about 2½ acres as of January 2026. The property is a 10.5-acre urban farm. Farm Director Sarah Salvatore told Jacksonville Today that another 8 acres go unworked because of limited resources and staff. Every fall Saturday you spend at Eartha's, you're shopping at a farm that, as of early 2026, was planted on roughly a quarter of its own ground.

Land Isn't the Limit Here

Most stories about urban farming are about finding space. Eartha's has the space. What it lacks, Salvatore said, is the coordination, labor and money to use it.

"I can only fund so many farmers — only have so much time in a day to grow food. So I have a ton of acres that I can grow food on if we had the coordination."

She said this in January 2026. She put the bottleneck in specific terms: developing the idle land means paying upfront for irrigation, tillage and crop maintenance. She made the comments while attending the public launch of the city's State of Food effort. That multimonth study is meant to map how food in Jacksonville is produced, distributed, accessed and consumed. Research for this post found no published findings yet, and no newer report on the 8 acres.

The farm has been adding capacity in other ways. Blue Zones Project Jacksonville provided a walk-in cooler, which Salvatore said would let the farm gather more goods from other local growers and distribute more food. In July 2025, News4JAX reported that the Clara White Mission received $400,000 for its Food Distribution II Initiative at Eartha's. Officials said the money would expand food distribution and educational programming.

Both of those investments help Eartha's move food. Neither one plows a field. That gap is why the market table looks the way it does. More of it comes from partner farms because the cooler and the distribution money are in place, while the acreage that could grow more onsite is still waiting on funding.

The Market Is Built to Stretch a Grocery Budget

The Saturday market's rules show what the farm is for. Eartha's takes part in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which gives vouchers to mothers and seniors that can be spent at the farm produce stand on Saturdays. It also takes part in Feeding Northeast Florida's Fresh Access Bucks program. SNAP EBT customers can shop with any of the market's food businesses and double their benefits on Florida-grown produce. When Jacksonville Today covered the program in October 2025, it explained the math this way: $20 in SNAP could buy $40 of eligible market food. The paper's January 2026 report said the market accepts both SNAP and WIC.

That doubling only works on Florida-grown produce. Every acre Eartha's adds would put more of that produce on its own table instead of a partner's.

The farm is also running classes. In May 2026, Eartha's and the Florida Department of Health in Duval County launched Grow & Nourish, a program with agriculture and nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, community gardening and wellness outreach. The program page says participants get the food grown and prepared through it at no cost. The posted calendar only runs through an Aug. 8 wrap session, so no fall class dates are listed yet.

Why This Ground Is a Farm at All

Eartha's is an initiative of the Clara White Mission, a Jacksonville nonprofit Dr. Eartha M.M. White founded in 1904. The farm sits on land White once lived on and looked after. She named the mission for her mother, Clara English White, who fed hungry neighbors from her home on Clay Street.

The farm dates to 2012. The public market is much newer. Its first day was Nov. 11, 2023, when it replaced the earlier White Harvest Farms name. Jacksonville Today reported then that White's property had once been leased to Black farmers. That makes this November the market's third anniversary.

Today the team includes Clara White Mission President and CEO Ju'Coby Pittman, Farm Director Sarah Salvatore, Farm Manager Imani Vidal and Market Manager Bianca Dawson.

A Second Farm, Run on a Different Model

The Northside's other working farm shows the same idea at a different scale. Congaree and Penn, at 11830 Old Kings Road, describes itself as 330 acres with mayhaw, olive and pecan orchards and a garden that grows produce for its restaurant. Its shop sells Jupiter Rice Middlins.

Eartha's uses its land for food access. Congaree and Penn uses its land for visits, with a pumpkin patch, a farm bar and a sit-down restaurant. Seeing both in one fall weekend shows two ways the Northside's open ground turns into food.

The pumpkin patch runs from September 24 through November 1. Hours are Thursday and Friday 3 p.m. to dusk, and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to dusk. The patch is a five-minute walk from the entrance, and pumpkins cost $12 each at the farm stand. The official page doesn't print a year. A pumpkin patch guide lists the same dates as the 2026 season. On select evenings, Fall on the Farm Grounds adds live music, the farm grounds bar and the Tin Can food truck.

You need a farm pass for anything past the dining area. Passes are sold only on arrival and are good for one day.

The farm says rates can be higher during special events, so the price on a Fall on the Farm Grounds night may differ. The restaurant, The Roost, is open-air and cooks with ingredients from the farm, partner farms and artisan suppliers. It's open Thursday 5 to 9 p.m., Friday 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Resy reservations open on a rolling 30-day window for parties of up to 12. Bar seats are first come, first served.

Putting the Saturday Together

Saturday lines up both farms in a single day. Eartha's self-guided farm visits run Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Programs page describes tours starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays instead, so check the format before you go. Congaree and Penn's patch doesn't open until 11 a.m.

1. Morning at Eartha's. Walk the planted rows, then shop the market once it opens at 10 a.m. Visit Jacksonville lists Oct. 10, 2026 as the next market date, with markets every Saturday after.
2. First Saturdays at Duval Station Road. The Northside Market at 590 Duval Station Road is a free community market of artists, makers and bakers. It runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month. The October market was Oct. 3, so if the schedule holds, the next one is Nov. 7.
3. Afternoon on Old Kings Road. Pick a pumpkin, walk the orchards and stay for an early dinner at The Roost if you've booked a table.

November adds two more reasons to start at Eartha's. Eventbrite lists Storytime On the Farm with author Brianna Ellis for Saturday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m., with a suggested $20 donation. The Rooted In Strength mannequin planter workshop is listed for Saturday, Nov. 21, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., with tickets from $33.85. Neither listing prints a year, so confirm the date on Eventbrite before you plan around it. If the eight idle acres interest you more than the patch, the farm page also offers volunteer sign-ups for farm work.

At Plenti Realty, we follow the places that give the Northside its everyday character, from a Saturday produce stand on Moncrief Road to the orchards off Old Kings Road. If you own a home nearby and want to know how what's close to you shows up in its value, ask us for a free home valuation. We'll walk you through the local numbers in plain terms.