Do you personally go to a farmer's market?

[MossRoad]

Our local farmer's market has all of the local-grown fresh stuff when in season. Prices are NOT inexpensive. In fact, it's one of the reasons we don't go there too often anymore. Our local grocery stores are pretty good about buying locally grown fruits and veggies when in season, and are quite a bit less expensive.

For that matter, we used to go to fruit stands all over the place in our area. We'd buy in bulk and can at home. Now they cater to people from Chicago, and things are priced out of reasonableness.

We had family friends where the grandpa would take the grandkids, pick up fruit and vegetables from a local farm that he was part owner of, they'd drive to a market in Chicago, and sell of for a small fortune. It was nothing for the grandkids to make $500 each on a Saturday.

 

[MossRoad]

A few things I forgot to mention about our farmer's market...

1. The smells.
They are fantastic. Fruits, veggies, baked goods, cut flower, etc...

2. The blind guy
For a few decades when I was younger, there was a blind guy that had a corner booth and made brooms by hand. He'd be sitting there making them in his booth. Of course, as kids with no sense of embarrassment, you blurt out, "How do you do that if you're blind?" He'd laugh and say "Just like this." and show you how to make a broom! My mom would buy one every year for the kitchen.

3. Free puppies and kittens.
Someone would always have free puppies and/or kittens at the doors.

4. Dead rabbits.
The butcher shop had rabbits in the case. As a little kid, you're face-to-face with the carcasses behind the glass. I always wanted my mom to buy one so I could see how it tasted. She'd always say no. Years later, she told me that during the depression, they survived on rabbits for meat, chickens for eggs (and the occasional meat), turnips and rutabagas. She ate so many rabbits as a kid, that she never wanted to eat another one ever again.

5. Our neighbors.
Our neighbors owned a flower store downtown, but they'd always be working at a fruit/vegetable booth with the same family name in the market on Saturdays. I found out their family had a farm just across the border in Michigan that they were active on. Never knew that until I was maybe 10-12 years old. I thought maybe they were just working extra jobs.

 

[Oaktree]

Our local farmer's market has all of the local-grown fresh stuff when in season. Prices are NOT inexpensive. In fact, it's one of the reasons we don't go there too often anymore. Our local grocery stores are pretty good about buying locally grown fruits and veggies when in season, and are quite a bit less expensive.

^^^^This!^^^
I see farmers markets as being more oriented towards tourists or second home owners from the city, with prices to match. As you noted, some supermarket chains (alas, Shaw's is not one of them) offer some locally/regionally grown produce in season, and usually at better prices. A lot of the produce I've seen at these markets gets kind of wilty looking if you don't get there early.

 

[ArlyA]

We sign up for a CSA every summer, not all the expensive and we eat well..... Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Dad sold our produce at local farmers market for many years. If you calculated his time and expenses, he lost money, but he just loved doing it.

 

[Oaktree]

My niece belongs to a CSA famers coop that delivers a box of vegetables every week, with a mix of what is in season. It's great, and you get a chance to have heirloom type varieties that do not generally turn up elsewhere.

Does she get any choice in what she gets with each delivery or do you get what they give you? Not such a great deal for someone who, say doesn't like tomatoes or rutabagas or zucchini or whatever but has to take it anyway in order to get the stuff they do want.

You seemed to hear a lot more about them years ago compared to today, maybe another vestige of the 60s that's fading?

 

[5030]

Never... The 'farmers market' is right here at the farm. Don't need to buy anything as we grow it including meat.

I look at them as a 'suburban' thing not a rural thing.

 

[ponytug]

Does she get any choice in what she gets with each delivery or do you get what they give you? Not such a great deal for someone who, say doesn't like tomatoes or rutabagas or zucchini or whatever but has to take it anyway in order to get the stuff they do want.

You seemed to hear a lot more about them years ago compared to today, maybe another vestige of the 60s that's fading?

You get what is available. Peak ripeness/freshness and all that. I know that they try hard for variety, but here, during the winter especially, the weather can make field access difficult, so some crops can't be harvested, even by hand, not to mention rot due to excess rain. Our local one would substitute in things like dried fruit and nuts if things were especially bad.

Generally it works out, but CSAs are probably not a great fit for someone who has strong vegetable preferences.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ericm979]

There's a local farmers market that we go to often when things are in season. The ag here is vinyards and christmas trees. Those don't make for much of a farmers market, so the vendors are from at least an hour away, often farther. They're still more local than what's in the grocery stores.

However there are some produce that's much better than the local grocery stores (which aren't bad). For example there's one outfit that has the most incredible strawberries.

 

[Darth_DMack]

We live in Camden, SC... a small(ish) town, with a lot of agriculture in and around our area. Camden, is a very historic town, dating back to the Revolutionary War, as well as several key battles fought here back in the American Civil War. However, Camden is most known for it's Equine parks and the Carolina Cup (horse race).

We have a Farmer's Market every Saturday, during the season, and my Wife and I frequent it regularly. I love to support our local farmers, and have met some extraordinary people here.

Now, we are establishing our little "hobby farm", and will be making a chicken coop / run soon, as well as planting some muscadine grapes and some other herbs and such.

We always seek out "farmer's markets" or produce stands where ever we are, or when we travel.