Homegrown Alabama will host its final farmers market Thursday before closing up for winter.

Homegrown Alabama started in 2005 with the purpose of putting locally sourced food in University of Alabama dining halls, but with the size of campus and the amount of food needed, it moved to providing to students directly.

The market is centered on being fresh and local. Everything sold has to be made and grown in Alabama.

Dabney Powell, the assistant market manager, said buying locally tends to lead to eating well.

“I think there’s been a trend in the past few years to move towards locally sourced everything, especially food,” Powell said “People want to support their local economy and their local farmers, and they want to know where their food comes from, and you can do all of that at Homegrown.”

Rena Jarvis, a Homegrown Alabama vendor and owner of Lar-Rens’s farm in Cottondale, Ala., was able to meet many students from the University and even offered canning lessons at her farm.

She said she felt the students were very conscious of what they were eating and that Homegrown Alabama contributed to their knowledge of food.

“They really were searching for info,” Jarvis said “It got them involved [with their food], and they saw what was going on.”

With the ability to sell directly to students, spots at the market are valued and hard to come by.

Karen Wallace, owner of Sara Ann’s, a business that sells organic eggs in Fosters, Ala., said she heard it was tough to get into Homegrown Alabama because the market is such a desirable location.

“Other vendors said, ‘It’s a great market, but they’re pretty jammed with vendors already,’” Wallace said.

Luckily, Wallace was able to get the foothold she needed to join Homegrown Alabama’s family early on.

A new product or a gap in product availability allows new vendors to enter the market. Homegrown Alabama typically tries to avoid market competition and keeps to only one type of main product vendor per market. This helps to protect its current vendors and offer a variety to students.

“When everyone is able to be there, we are packed to capacity,” Powell said. “We have to turn people down all the time.”

Some vendors have expressed an interest in continuing into winter, but Homegrown Alabama isn’t quite ready to make the jump into a year-round market. Although it runs only once per week, the time commitment and organization outside the market is immense.

“We thought about pushing the market into November this year. Some of our vendors wanted to, but at the same time, we are a student organization,” Powell said. “But after fall break, we all need to focus on school.”

Homegrown Alabama finds it has a slight drop in student numbers as the leaves begin to turn. Regardless, it would like to end this fall on a high note so it may begin preparation for the spring.

The market is set to return for its ninth year in April 2014, just as soon as the local crops are ripe.