Farmers Markets 101

by | May 22, 2014 | Staff Column | 0 comments

It’s mid-May, which means that farmers market season is in full swing. For the next several months, markets across the country will have fresh produce, dairy, meats, baked goods, and other products ready for the sustainable shopper to swoop in and snag.

If you live in the US and don’t already know where you can find a market near you, you might want to check out these handy websites:

http://search.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/ –the official USDA directory of farmers markets across the US. Most entries will include information about the time and location of the market, as well as the products they offer, and a link to their website.

http://www.localharvest.org/— lists not only farmers markets, but also a variety of other places where you can find local food, including some farms themselves. This is a great resource if you’re interested in finding all the options in your area.

Now that you’ve located your local farmers market and know when and where to go, here are some tips for your farmers market trip, which may be useful even if you’re a seasoned veteran:

 

A Guide to Farmers Markets

  • Get there early, if you can make it. (If it’s a weekend market, I know early Saturday mornings are hard, but you can go back and take a nap!) You get the best selection that way. Really popular things like, say, strawberries can sell out within just a couple hours of the market opening.
  • Bring your own bags. Just like with the grocery store, it saves on plastic waste.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask the farmer questions. This is actually one of the very best parts of going to a farmers market– getting to talk directly to the person who planted, grew, and harvested your food. Don’t be shy! Thing you might want to ask the farmer include:
    • What is this? Chances are you won’t recognize every piece of produce. Sure, you know what a potato looks like (I hope). But when I first started shopping at markets, I didn’t know a radish from a rutabaga. And some farmers pride themselves on their more unique and rare produce. So don’t be embarrassed!
    • What’s your favorite way to cook this? If you’re thinking of buying something you’ve never cooked with before, it’s a good idea to get some recipe ideas from the farmer– chances are they have some great ideas that will make your produce as tasty as possible.
    • Did you grow this? Don’t assume that whoever is manning the stand is necessarily the farmer (though it often is)—some farmers will hire other people to do markets for them, and sometimes vendors will sell produce from a collection of farms to get variety.
    • Where was this grown? This way you can find out exactly how local your food is! And maybe they’ll invite you to come see the farm.
    • How was this grown? Knowing how produce was grown can help indicate how sustainable and nutritious the produce is. (Don’t get upset if they don’t say it was organically grown, though– “organic” is a certification that requires certain specific criteria are met, and it doesn’t always work for all small farmers to get that certification. That necessarily doesn’t mean they’re not growing sustainably.)
  • Know what’s in season, and plan accordingly. While some crops are in season for months at time, some have very narrow windows– like asparagus, strawberries, or spinach. You can’t get everything at any given time, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with what’s in season in your area so you know what it expect.  Note that even within states, though, what’s in season can vary several weeks depending on the region. And there’s often much more at the market than what is on this list.
  • Know how much food you’ll actually eat. Don’t buy so much food that you just won’t have a chance to eat it all in a week, because unlike conventional produce from the grocery store, fare from the farmers market isn’t laced with preservatives, and it might spoil faster than you imagine. If you can eat boatloads of produce in a week, good for you! If you can’t, don’t buy boatloads so that it can spoil and go to waste.
  • Make a budget.  It’s easy to get caught up in all the exciting options, but you don’t want to spend way too much and discourage yourself from going back.
  • If the prices or the new things intimidate you, buy what you know you’ll use, and try getting just one new thing a week. Sometimes farmers markets are more expensive than grocery stores, and they have different products. The benefit, of course, is that the food is often more locally and sustainably grown, but you don’t have to suddenly make the switch to getting all your food from a farmer’s market. Make it a gradual change, so you grow more accustomed to it.
  • Meat is especially expensive. (If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, this doesn’t affect you.) But you can know it was raised sustainably and humanely, which may be worth the extra price to you. Almost all animals raised for commercial meat were not, hence why the meat is so cheap. This might be a good opportunity to cut down on meat consumption, by limiting yourself to purchasing from the farmers market. Meat is one of the least sustainable foods, and the US culture tends to eat far too much of it.
  • Bring a dog! Okay, this is not a necessity. But so many people bring their dogs to farmers markets that it almost feels like it is. Dogs for everyone! But make sure it’s on a leash. And I wouldn’t recommend other animals on leashes, including cats, lizards, ferrets, or miniature horses. I know from experience it doesn’t work as well.

by Jessica Edington