The COVID-19 epidemic may change the routine of farmers’ markets, but it isn’t going to stop them from opening throughout Alabama in the coming weeks.

Officials at the state’s Farmers Market Authority, a division of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, expect a boom season and have issued guidelines for doing business during the coronavirus pandemic.

Don Wambles, director of the Farmers Market Authority, said there was a consensus from the beginning, from federal authorities on down, that agriculture was an essential business. That’s as true of Alabama as it is anywhere. Wambles said he expects to have more than 170 farmers’ markets in business in Alabama once the season is in full swing, and that they’ll provide a critical sales conduit for nearly 1,000 small and midsize farms.

Wambles said a handful have already opened, with goods including late greens and early strawberries. The season tends to start in late April in south Alabama, he said, and in mid-May or early June farther north. Many south Alabama markets take a break in the hottest part of summer and reopen in September, while their counterparts to the north tend to stay open straight through until a close in late fall.

“We’ve had a really good winter and spring, as far as growing seasons,” Wambles said.

The Authority’s guidelines will seem familiar, in large part, because they follow recommendations in use throughout the retail world: Workers should increase their use of gloves and hand sanitizers, limit physical contact with patrons and not work if they are showing signs of illness, for example. Patrons should maintain social distancing as much as possible, avoid hand-to-hand contact and use electronic payments rather than cash when possible.

There are, however, a few that represent distinct changes in policy -- one example being a guideline that there should be six to 10 feet of space between vendors’ booths. “Normally we’re adamant, we want them as close together as we can get ‘em,” Wambles said.

The recommendations also call for sellers to have two people on hand if possible, where a booth might normally be a one-man operation. With two people, one can handle transactions while the other handles the merchandise.

Wambles stressed that the Authority’s guidelines are recommendations, not mandatory rules.

“We want that farmer’s market to belong to that community,” he said. For example, on the question of whether workers and patrons should be required to wear face masks, “We left that to the managers and their steering committees,” he said.

The city of Mobile announced Wednesday that based on the Authority’s guidelines, it had decided to open its regular Market in the Park in Cathedral Square starting Saturday, May 2. At www.facebook.com/MarketsInMobile/ it posted its own adaptation of the Authority guidelines, starting right up front with the edict that masks or face coverings “must be worn by ALL consumers.” Customers are asked not to touch products until they’ve purchased them.

The “suggested” nature of the statewide guidelines means customers should check on the latest information available from their local markets. Some already have been proactive in setting restrictive early-season policies.

In late March, The Market at Pepper Place in Birmingham began testing a “contactless” drive-through market. The approach, still in place this weekend, requires customers to contact individual sellers and pre-pay online for their purchases. The Pepper Place website provides contact information.

As a sign of how popular the feature has proven, the Market at Pepper Place Facebook page this week carried an apology for the fact that its online shop had crashed “due to an overwhelming demand.”

Tuscaloosa’s River Market has taken a similar approach, offering curbside pickup for pre-ordered goods “until normal operations can resume.”

In Foley, the Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market has been open with a series of sanitary and social distancing requirements in place. (Sorry, but free food samples is one of the casualties.) Market operators say they are in “very close and constant communication with the City of Foley Officials and the Alabama Farmers Market Authority” and ready to respond to any new information or requirements.

The Farmers Market Authority maintains an online county-by-county map of farmers markets throughout Alabama. Wambles said Thursday that 2020 information had just been compiled and that the map should be up to date by the end of April.

Wambles said he hopes consumers won’t let the epidemic deter them from supporting Alabama agriculture.

“We’ve got about 980 farmers that sell at these markets,” Wambles said. A few of the bigger ones also have a wholesale side, but for most the farmers’ markets are the primary source of revenue, he said.

“They really need it,” he said.