The Return of the Farmers' Market
It's the time of the year when they're popping up all over North America. There are some subtle and not so subtle differences in local markets.
Start talking about Farmers’ Markets and it conjures up a variety of images for what has become ubiquitous in towns, villages and cities around North America in the past few decades.
Piles of produce start arriving with the beginning of growing weather. Accompanied by other agricultural and ‘maker’ products, they often attempt to replicate some kind of bygone utopian era where the bountiful land is presented to the appreciative townies and touring folks who happily collect mounds of stunning examples of nature’s abundance.
Their popularity is rooted partly in nostalgia, partly in the perennial trend to revere ‘healthy’ foods and partly in the quest for authentic experiences.
That is to say, the market offerings are ‘curated’ to fit a specific bracket. And that’s how they differ from traditional street or square markets.
Traditionally a temporary market was essential for obtaining food stuffs in a time before supermarkets and grocery chains. Essential for the consumers and essential for the producers. As food and other agricultural products became more commodified, it was no longer necessary to head to town once a week with a wagon load of rutabaga, hopeful that Farmer Smith wouldn’t be doing the same thing and thereby initiating a rutabaga price war.
Because part of the appeal of ‘market day’ was good deals for the end user. A plentiful harvest meant lower prices, and in the days when a ton of your average paycheck went to food purchases (shocker: more than even now!), any deal was a good deal. Plus it was fresh! After a winter of eating from the larder and the granary, fresh was a hella good idea
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Fresh is still with us today. But the idea of getting great bargains on your favourite farm production is getting more and more rare. Turns out the new crop of farmers like to eat too. And drive trucks and live in houses. So produce from that verified 100 mile circle or guarantee of unmatched providence is going to cost you much more than at Safeway. If you’re at the kind of market I like to call “The Precious”, there will be rules about who can sell based on distance from the market, the type of growing conditions (organic?), possibly the size of the operation and often requiring the actual person responsible for production standing right there. It’s not a free-for-all. The quality will be high, your bank account balance will be rendered low.
The other kind of market is the “Anything, All the Time” affair. The point of these markets for the supplier is to supply local people with what they want at the best price possible while having better quality than your competitor. Also called a truck market, it’s a no holds barred match with suppliers and buyers rather than producers and farmers and represents a hustle rather than much kumbaya. Weekly street markets in Paris were like this for me. I asked one seller about the magnificent-looking oranges he had on display and he said they’d left the Moroccan groves about 48 hours before I saw them. And they were cheaper than the dry ones I saw later that day in Carrefour. These operators don’t deal in one thing, or one farm or one area. They’re constantly on the lookout for the best deal. The same orange seller had bottles of sparkling rose serving as a border between the oranges and the neighbouring artichokes. I asked about the wine and he just shrugged about the quality. At 12 euro, it turned out to be a great Loire. It was more about the deal and the margin for him.
Ultimately, when you’re heading out Saturday morning to do a little food shopping, the decision will be one of thrift and utility or authenticity and experience. In the best of all worlds, you’ll get a little of both.
What type of market do you prefer?