The Thing About Farmers Market...

The Thing About Farmers Market...
Baby May and Foxhole's first Market Year

Farmers Market season has come again.  Rich and I have been working weekend farmers markets since 2011.  Pack up, drive to town, set up, peddle goods, break down, drive back to the farm, unload, tend to what you've missed all day on the farm.

Throughout the last ten years, we have been at various markets...in New York State, Michigan's thumb, the suburbs of Detroit, and back here in Dayton.  Each has its own character and certainly its own cast of characters.  I remember a vendor who would set up across the way from us at one particular market...he would show up in basketball shorts, nice sneakers and a tshirt for set up.  Then he would don a farmer costume just in time for the marketgoers to start trickling in...blue jean overalls over a plaid shirt, busted straw hat, old boots.  It almost felt like a slight to farmers...like a gimmick of an Old McDonald costume meant to lure folks in to a contrived poor farmer's booth.  In the talk of market town there were whispers that McDonald was buying produce from auction and reselling at market.  Rich and I still refer to that farmers market as the dog show.  The local population was stocked with rare pure-bred dogs.  I learned so many new breeds at that market...I'll never forget seeing one dressed in exercise clothes and dog shoes, matching his owner.

There's such contrast between our week spent on the farm with our kids and market day at the end of the week where we are immersed in a sea of people...taking part in so many conversations predominantly inspired by food.  And it's precisely that magic, that "thing" that keeps us coming back to market.  In a world that is growing more virtual, we still have market...a human experience that has existed for ages.  Though we are now handling payments with a touch free reader rather than accepting shekels for carrots, we growers and makers are still standing behind our goods, touching base with our community.  

And so, even though there comes an inevitable rain-out at market when we lose our chance to get veggies to your table, or when we are just exhausted from the work it takes to set up a shop from scratch every week, that enchantment of being there steeped in the people we feed, encourages us to head the back to the field to get ready for another weekend at market.  I know there is a madness in participating in a market that drives some vendors mad by the end of the season...but for farmers who don't have enough time or energy to run a brick and mortar shop, this still remains our favorite, realistic retail model.  Shuttling all of our food through wholesale channels to you just feels too faceless, and so for as long as the city of Oakwood will allow all of us to have a pop up party once a week, we will always bring a portion of our goods directly to you, so you can come to know some of the hands who feed you :).