FOLEY — The city of Foley could soon have a new farmer’s market, thanks to a $317,500 Gulf Tourism and Seafood Promotional Fund grant.

During its regular meeting Monday, the Foley City Council voted to accept the grant, which is funded by BP to, as the name indicates, promote tourism and seafood consumption in areas impacted by Deepwater Horizon.

“In early October, we applied for the grant,” Foley City Administrator Mike Thompson said in a phone interview after Monday’s meeting.

That application, which was subsequently approved, included the addition of a farmer’s market on city property located near Wolf Bay Lodge on County Road 20.

“Our plan is to place it at the pecan field,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a metal building there.”

While the property includes approximately 30 acres, the vision of the market is to fill five acres of it with the farmer’s market.

Thompson explained that it’s unclear whether the project will conflict with Foley’s current summer farmer’s market, which is located in Heritage Park in the early portion of the summer.

“We might continue that, too,” he said.

The plan for this new concept is to begin with a space that would provide year-round retail opportunities for South Baldwin farmers, a concept that was envisioned by Don Wombles of Alabama Farmer’s Authority.

“He’s been working with our local farmers to form a co-op,” Thompson said.

That work includes efforts to eventually provide an avenue for local foods to be available to area restaurants, schools and hospitals. It also includes providing educational-demonstration opportunities for culinary students at Faulkner State Community College, with the hopes of the facility becoming a tourist destination.

“Those are things we are looking at,” Thompson said.

But for the immediate future, the idea is simply to provide a space that allows local farmers to sell their produce and for area residents and tourists to purchase fresh, local produce.

As for now, the city of Foley has one year to spend the newly-acquired funds.

“We’ll be working with an engineer and designer to get this project started,” Thompson said.