What happened to real farmers markets?

[21hens-incharge]

I cannot possibly be the only one to notice things have changed.



I remember back in the day when there were actual local farmers selling actual produce at the markets.

We stopped at a farmers market today and I was so very saddened. It was very boutique/speciality like.
There were breads, baked goods all very artsy and expensive. Nope I won't pay $8 for a loaf of bread.
There was jewelry, candles, dog treats, "local" honey, massages, bird houses, and even pot there.
The very few booths that had produce were things that are out of season here.
There were cherries for $7 a pound.....the grocery store has the same kind for $1.77. Yes I passed on those.

Booth after booth was a sad statement of the times we are living in.

Why I remember being able to head to the farmers market and get bushels of pickling cukes, tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, carrots, giant sacks of corn on the cob etc etc etc.
Many of those old time markets had people that simply were overrun with wonderful things from their own gardens.

You know......back when neighbors helped each other.

My how times have changed.

 

[av8torcrj]

50 acres, 200 chickens, multiple greenhouses... my first order from HelloFresh arrives Wednesday. Eventually ya just get too old to fight Mother Nature. I may get back in the ring with her eventually but I'm spending this summer beating back her encroaching wilderness before I have to clip a tunnel through the cudzu just to get in the front door.

 

[LightningBug]

I think part of the problem is that farming has such a narrow margin of profit on anything, only medium to really large farms can afford the booth price and afford to take an entire day off or pay someone to represent them for the whole day.

It wouldn't be worth it for a small farmer who has only a little excess to pay to go to these places - whereas the larger farms who have contacts and can order in what they don't grow/what's out of season cheap have plenty of profit to make.

The crafts and specialty farms - goat farms, fiber farms - have a higher expected price. No one is going to pay the $3 a small farmer has to sell their eggs a dozen for to make up what they spend getting to/being at the market... But people recognize that natural fiber and alternative milks are expensive.

At least, that's how it is here.

We have one farm that participates in our local market and it's not for lack of farms - it's because the one large farm can offer things so cheap (even things they trade in bulk for!) that no one will buy from anyone else.

To the lay person, a farmer is a farmer unless they grow something rare/exotic. It doesn't matter if a tomato was grown by a struggling organic farmer who puts in an honest day's work and is knowledgeable or is being sold by an owner of a farm who outsources all their labor for dirt cheap and spends all day peddling their goods. Coming from a "local farm," is the same either way. All they see is the owner-operator-only employee has a higher price tag, and think it's a ludicrous price.

/rantover

New Haven, Connecticut has such a thriving Farmers Market scene, that there are several markets around the city during the growing season, and even a Winter Market, mostly animal products of course. You can get your $6 soaps and $5 pastries, but fresh corn is still two for a dollar. Local pork, beef, goat, oysters and pastured eggs. The produce must be 100% locally grown, and these markets were one of the first to accept disabled veterans' benefits and food stamps, and even give $2 of veggies for every $1 of benefits (while the farmer gets paid the same...supporting local agriculture and people in need.)
It amazes me that anyone can make a living by farming when the price of land is so high around here. Of course some are adding higher value things like heirloom tomatoes, pawpaws, fresh ginger, herbs, greenhouse lettuces. More power to them. That's one less farm bulldozed into a subdivision with a nostalgic rural name!

We recently moved out of that university city, and now our nearest farmer's market is in a down-at-the-heels small city. No fancy stuff there... just produce, ethnic veggies, local apples... and unpasteurized cider (turns into New England champagne after a month or so in the fridge!) And until this season there was an honor-system farm stand at the corner of our street, because the farm family lived there and their land was a couple miles away.

So local veggies are still reasonable around here, but the cost of raising meat and dairy here makes that harder to afford. I buy it sometimes, but at $15/lb for cheeses, $8/lb for grass fed hamburger (forget about the steaks!) and upwards of $17 for a pastured chicken... unfortunately I end up buying most of that at the grocery store instead. That's a shame because animal products are really the most important things to buy local, clean and humanely raised. I should see what I can shift around in the budget to prioritize that. I'm fighting back the weeds to grow a lot of tomatoes and veggies in the back garden too. And hopefully by sometime next year... pampered hen eggs!

 

[CannedMonster]

Ours is like that right now.
People selling crafts instead of food lol.
There’s nothing wrong with that but you’d think something called a Farmers Market the majority of items would be food.
Or call it a Craft Fair lol.
It’s still kinda early in the season though.
We’ll see how it goes.

 

[av8torcrj]

We were vendors at the Downtown Memphis farmers market since inception many years ago but over time it evolved into a carnival for the downtown crowd to come see and be seen. Management made the farmers feel like they were doing us a FAVOR by ALLOWING us to be vendors, restricting what we could sell while trying to support ourselves. They were vindictive and spiteful, obcessed with being on a power trip, knowing nothing about farming. Management would ask "where's the corn".....in APRIL. Fresh veggies dwindled while catering trucks, pop corn and crafty crap flourished. It became a flea market. We finally had a belly full of them. Apparently it's circling the proverbial drain now while a more liberal market run by FARMERS is flourishing. That being said, the allure of the market scene does seem to have dwindle and, for sure, its increadibly hard, hot, dirty sweaty work.

 

[Conan]

Ugh - I live just north of Gig Harbor, Wa and the Farmer's market is just straight "yuppy-ized". Same crap. Overpriced craft fair. I no longer attend the Gig Harbor market. The one in Port Orchard has a lot of promise but is so small that it's barely ever open.
I will say that the Farmer's market in Olympia was amazing! Tons of small, local farmers selling produce at fair and reasonable prices. Awesome local salsas and legit local honey. In addition, any plant (veggie and herb) start that you could imagine and super affordable. It's the only thing I miss about that pit of despair known as Olympia
Now I just hit our local nursery for larger plants and grow everything else from seed.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

We moved in August from central CO, and the farmers markets there were just as you described. It was disappointing.
Now we live in an area where they have real farmers markets, with local farmers, every weekend. During the week, I can even drive 10 minutes to go to a produce stand put out by a local farm, and buy reasonably priced produce! I love it!
I got so sick of the one in Colorado that had more artisan crafts and $8 breads (that I could make for less than a dollar), and yes, pot products. I much prefer it here.

 

[BrindleFinch]

I think part of the problem is that farming has such a narrow margin of profit on anything, only medium to really large farms can afford the booth price and afford to take an entire day off or pay someone to represent them for the whole day.

It wouldn't be worth it for a small farmer who has only a little excess to pay to go to these places - whereas the larger farms who have contacts and can order in what they don't grow/what's out of season cheap have plenty of profit to make.

The crafts and specialty farms - goat farms, fiber farms - have a higher expected price. No one is going to pay the $3 a small farmer has to sell their eggs a dozen for to make up what they spend getting to/being at the market... But people recognize that natural fiber and alternative milks are expensive.

At least, that's how it is here.

We have one farm that participates in our local market and it's not for lack of farms - it's because the one large farm can offer things so cheap (even things they trade in bulk for!) that no one will buy from anyone else.

To the lay person, a farmer is a farmer unless they grow something rare/exotic. It doesn't matter if a tomato was grown by a struggling organic farmer who puts in an honest day's work and is knowledgeable or is being sold by an owner of a farm who outsources all their labor for dirt cheap and spends all day peddling their goods. Coming from a "local farm," is the same either way. All they see is the owner-operator-only employee has a higher price tag, and think it's a ludicrous price.

/rantover

 

[21hens-incharge]

I was just thinking to myself, "Wow, sounds like the one I went to in Colorado." LOL It was in Woodland Park, and, yeah, not at all like when we were kids and Mom would stop by the stuff on the side of the highway.

Woodland park.....I would expect it to be like the one I went to here in my podunk town.

I wouldn't have been so disappointed if there had been at least two true veggie booths.
Even the ONE that was there.....the veggies looked to have been trucked in.

It's to late to start many more veggies here. I am working hard to keep what I have healthy and growing.

It kinda makes sense that Joe Farmer is being driven out of the markets. Booth prices, cheap veggies being trucked in, yuppie booths full of NOT veggies and the overall snobbish atmosphere.

It's just so sad to see.

I bet that back in the day they were just great people gathering to sell veggies......without booth charges and uppity crap.

 

[oregonkat]

Farming is one of THE hardest jobs IMHO. The hours are long. The days are hot. There are so many things out of the control of the farmers.

Too true. I used to work our Tuesday/Thursday markets here with my cut flowers. Sometimes if I had an over abundance of veggies, I sold those too. Growing, harvesting, compiling bouquets, packing up the truck, setting up the booth, standing there all day, taking down the booth, getting home....... etc. through the entire growing season is no joke, especially alone . The markets here do not allow anyone in that does not grow/make their own stuff, period. No out of season produce here, no single big farms either.
The markets run from March to October and there are folks at these markets who are truly dedicated to the idea of supplying/buying local and have been for decades! I guess we are lucky!!