Buying local produce in downtown Bowling Green isn’t just for Saturdays anymore.

The Crop Shop, an adjunct of the SoKY Marketplace outdoor farmers market, opened Tuesday in the former Taylor Chapel AME Church on Center Street, giving vendors another avenue for selling their wares.

“Our customers love it,” said Margaret Kay of Hillbilly Grillers, a SoKY Marketplace vendor that sells meats and baked goods. “Some of them work downtown and Saturday might not be a good day for them to come to the farmers market.”

Located on street level in a building that houses the SoKY Marketplace commercial kitchen upstairs, the Crop Shop was furnished Tuesday with fresh and canned vegetables, various meats, baked goods and syrups. Such fare will be available for purchase from 3 to 6 p.m. each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, supplementing the Saturday hours for the outdoor farmers market.

Made possible by a $31,748 specialty crop grant from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Crop Shop is the culmination of years of work developing the SoKY Marketplace as a venue for local farmers to sell their products.

“This (Crop Shop) was in the plan from the beginning,” said Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon, on hand for the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting. “We’re just now getting to it.”

Calling the SoKY Marketplace a “labor of love” for those involved, Buchanon said the Crop Shop “is about making local foods more readily accessible to the people and creating different markets for farm products.”

The Crop Shop is staffed by Director of Operations Courtney McBaen and retail associate Mekinsey Ford. McBaen describes the Crop Shop as an outgrowth of the weekend farmers market.

“The SoKY Marketplace brings in farmers from 14 different counties,” she said. “For the three days we’re open during the week, we’ll sell for them. Anything you can find at the farmers market you can find here.”

SoKY Marketplace Chairperson Lynn O’Keefe calls the Crop Shop “a natural extension of what we’re doing at the farmers market.”

O’Keefe said the new retail location adds convenience for both farmers and shoppers, and she said the hours of operation could expand if the Crop Shop catches on.

And she thinks it will.

“With all the apartments being built downtown, I think this is a good time to be doing this,” she said.