A Model Market, Reconnecting Shoppers to Food

An artist's rendition of the Market.

Photo: Oxbow Market

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There's a good chance the Oxbow Public Market in Napa, Calif. has all the elements of your favorite local grocery, farmers market and even farm all rolled into one.

The concept is as grand as it is simple: Re-connect food makers with food buyers. Wine will ferment on the premises, customers will tap their own oil, and the butchers and bakers will do their work in full view of the customers passing by, according to the Los Angeles Times. It's got everything from a bookstore to an antique cooking wares shop, making it perhaps the most unlikely mall-like anti-supermarket in America.

With so many people disconnected from the ways in which their food is made, and so many people dependent on overly processed foods, the Oxbow Public Market has the potential to scale up the farmers market experience with grocery store convenience, a model that we could see replicated as the locavore trend grows.

It's opening soon. And, if it's successful in Napa, entrepreneur Steve Carlin plans to go national, in a distinctly local kind of way.

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