Saturday mornings in downtown Delray Beach get their anchor back on October 24. The Delray Beach GreenMarket opens its 31st winter season that day on the Old School Square campus, 51 N. Swinton Avenue, and then runs every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. all the way to May 22, 2027, according to the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, which runs it.

That is more than seven months of Saturday tomatoes, citrus, flowers and breakfast in the shade, and for a lot of Delray households it is the real start of the season, more reliable than the first cold front.

A market the city has been running since 1996

The GreenMarket is not a pop-up that got lucky. The CRA started it in 1996, and it has run in two seasons a year ever since, a big winter season that stretches into late May and a summer season. This fall's opening makes 31 winters, a long run for anything in a downtown that reinvents itself as often as this one.

The setting is part of the appeal. Old School Square is the historic schoolhouse campus at Swinton and Atlantic, the civic center of downtown Delray, and the market fills it with tents on Saturday mornings while the avenue wakes up around it.

Who is selling

The CRA counts more than 70 local growers, makers and food vendors for the winter season, and it says much of the lineup comes from local farmers and food artisans. The list of what you can carry home is long:

  • Locally grown produce, just-picked citrus, and tropical fruit and juice
  • Grass-fed beef and fresh-caught seafood
  • Farm-fresh eggs
  • Artisan cheese, jams and baked goods
  • Gluten-free, vegan and organic options
  • Fresh-cut flowers and plants

The market also keeps space for nonprofit vendors and rotates in small businesses, so the tent next to your usual egg stand may be someone new on any given Saturday.

Stay for breakfast

The GreenMarket works as a morning out, not just a shopping run. There is live music through the morning, and a food area where vendors cook on site, with seating for anyone who wants to eat there instead of balancing a bag of oranges and a coffee on the walk back to the car. Come hungry, then shop.

SNAP works here

One detail worth passing along: the market accepts SNAP benefits. The process is simple. Stop at the EBT booth before you shop, swipe your SNAP card, and you get tokens to spend on fresh local produce and other eligible items at the stalls. Questions about the program go to the CRA's market team, listed on the season announcement.

Plan around the big weekends

Downtown Delray hosts plenty of citywide events over the winter, and some Saturdays the market steps aside for them. The CRA says any closure will be posted on its GreenMarket page and on the market's social accounts, @delraygreenmarket on Instagram and Delray Beach GreenMarket on Facebook, so check before you head out on a holiday weekend.

The Downtown Development Authority's market page is a second place to look for the season's details.

How to do it right

Early is the move for produce, since the best of the citrus and greens goes first. Later in the morning is better for lingering, when the music is going and the food area fills up. Either way, the market ends at 2 p.m., and Atlantic Avenue is right there for lunch if you came for the walk as much as the vegetables.

Mark Saturday, October 24, at 9 a.m. The 31st winter season of Delray's Saturday market starts then, and it does not stop until May.