Truly Local

The Trouble With Peddling at 'Farmers Markets'

Those who defend the reselling of wholesale produce at so-called farmers markets (for example, in Virginia and Arkansas) insist that the practice is the only way to give shoppers the variety they want. They also typically vow that wholesale goods, trucked in from who-knows-where, will be offered for sale by peddlers at the market only until genuine, locally grown produce comes into season.

Trouble is, the practice is deceitful and it leaves shoppers, who are drawn to the markets because they want to support local farmers and think they’re buying fresh-picked produce, feeling cheated (as has happened from Tomah, Wis., to Melbourne, Australia). There’s an even more insidious problem with allowing wholesale produce into farmers markets. It will in the long run actually limit the variety of locally-grown offerings by discouraging real farmers from innovating.

A recent story in the New York Times about farmers markets in Connecticut illustrates what can happen when vendors are allowed to sell only what they or neighboring farmers have grown. This year, the markets in Fairfield, New London and Litchfield stayed open through the winter for the first time, with little advance notice to the farmers, so the selection of produce was limited. But that will change. Farmers who sell at the markets, confident that they won’t be competing with produce trucked in from California or Mexico and resold by peddlers at the markets, have begun looking for ways to assure that they will have more to offer in the winters to come.

Within a year or two, consumers in Connecticut will be able to buy truly local produce year round. Real farmers will benefit, as well. Ed Gazy, for instance, has big plans for next winter for the half-acre that he has under plastic at his 20-acre Gazy Brothers Farm in Oxford.

He is already thinking in terms of lettuce, tomatoes, basil, garlic, spinach, arugula, beets and radishes for next year. “It’s a start to having a year-round income for a small farmer,” Mr. Gazy said.

Laura McKinney of Riverbank Farm in Roxbury agreed. “There’s less pressure to make all your money in the short growing period that there is,” said Ms. McKinney… She is already planning for next winter — more fall crops like celery root and cabbage, and using the farm’s new commercial kitchen to process tomatoes.

David Zemelsky of Star Light Gardens in Durham, who already grows greens all winter with about half his three acres under plastic, was one of only two growers at Fairfield [this past winter] with actual fresh green produce. He said that with high fuel prices, the market was more economical than delivering to restaurants. “If I can go to one place, and do all my business in one place, it’s much more effective.”

For Paul Trubey of Beltane Farm in Lebanon, the ability to have his goat cheeses in all three winter markets allowed him to quit his “day” job as a social worker instead of going into debt, the way he usually does in winter. “It’s been a great thing that’s made the business much more viable,” he said. “It helped my spouse be less nervous about me quitting my job.”

It certainly helps if consumers are educated about the difference between a supermarket and a farmers market. As Katherine Dyer, manager of the market in Fairfield, told the reporter for the Times, “I’m hoping that customers are patient and realize that we’re growing a new market and next year we’ll have more stuff.”

Keeping It Mostly Local in Cooperstown

The 17-year-old farmers market in Cooperstown, N.Y., allows its farmers to supplement their home-grown fruits and vegetables with a limited quantity of produce that they have purchased from others, but tries to keep a tight lid on the practice. According to the rules that govern the market, which runs every Saturday from mid-May through mid-December, 80 percent of the food and crafts offered for sale by each vendor must be grown or produced by the “vendor, a member of the vendor’s immediate family, or representative” within a 50-mile radius of Cooperstown. Those items that the vendor has purchased from others must be clearly labeled as such.

For the 20% of brokered products offered by a vendor, the vendor must fill out the sign provided by the Market Manager that identifies where the items were grown or produced. Fruit from adjacent states may be sold at the market if it is not in season in New York State.

The market management seems to be serious about enforcing the rules. To that end, each vendor must sign an inspection agreement, consenting to spot checks by the manager and an independent inspector on 24-hour notice. A curiously worded provision in the agreement states that inspections “will be used indiscriminately for new vendors, and for investigating suspected violations.” What do the inspectors’ look for, and what happens if the suspicion that a vendor was cheating is confirmed?

Inspection criteria will be based on the vendor’s market application. Are they growing the crops listed on their application? Are they growing amounts that correspond to what is sold at market? Are they baking, processing, or otherwise producing items sold at the market and in corresponding quantities?

In the event that a grower/producer is found to be in violation by the inspectors or refuses to provide access to their farm/kitchen/production facilities, they will be afforded a hearing before the Market Board, at which time the grower/producer can present evidence to support a defense. After the hearing the Market Board will render a decision. Disciplinary actions include but are not limited to temporary or permanent suspension from the farmers’ market, and/or fines.

Virginia Market Capitulates to ‘Consumer Demand’

A majority of vendors at the farmers market in Warrentown, Va., have voted to approve a controversial plan that would allow them to resell wholesale produce. The market has been a “producer-only” operation in recent years, according to a March 19 report on the hotly disputed proposal in the Fauquier Times-Democrat. But the vendors who pressed for the change asserted that customers are unhappy with the lack of variety.

Sabrey Alshakarwi, who has been peddling teas and spices at the market for more than 20 year, complained that he was “getting a headache” explaining to customers why the farmers market couldn’t match what the local Giant supermarket was offering. He was in favor of giving customers what they want, and so he sided with the majority of vendors who considered the proposal at the market association’s annual meeting. On a 10-5 vote that opponents say was tainted by low turnout, the vendors decided to switch from a producer-only market to what they will call a “Virginia-grown market.”

Under the new rule, up to 20 percent of what vendors will be allowed to sell at the farmers market can consist of items purchased elsewhere and resold. Supposedly, it will be produce grown by other Virginia farmers, a restriction to be enforced by requiring resellers to show receipts. But some of the farmers who sell at the market and strongly oppose the plan are skeptical. They fear the real growers, and in turn the entire market, will be undermined by even a limited encroachment of wholesale produce. As Kelly Alm, a reporter for the Times-Democrat, noted:

Jim Mello, who has been selling at the Warrenton market for 21 years, said he wants the market to stay a producers-only market. “It’s compelling that you can stand in front of a customer and say, ‘I grew this,’ and tell them how you grew it, and what you put on it, and even encourage them to grow it themselves,” he said.

Eric Plaskin of Waterpenny Farm in Rappahannock agreed. “I grow everything I sell,” Plaskin said. “I think it's dangerous to mess with that.” Plaskin said that his economic success is based on being part of a market selling locally produced food. “This is not about reselling,” Plaskin said. “It's about going directly to the source.”

Sue Olinger, a new market board member said that the transition would allow vendors to bring in early and late crops from other parts of Virginia, making “the market more viable for the entire year.” … However, Mello also pointed out how opening the market to early crops risks “taking the top of the market,” and forcing those vendors who produce the same product to lower their price.

Others wondered how the 20 percent would be quantified and enforced. “Are we talking 20 percent of the market value, 20 percent of volume, 20 percent of the quantity in the display space?” Plaskin asked.

All of the vendors at the annual meeting agreed on one thing. If the market does abandon its producer-only policy, vendors who are selling products they did not grow should at least be required to put up signs disclosing that to customers. As Alm observed, those who don’t resell produce may well also choose to let shoppers know that. “Those who grow all of their own produce will most likely want to market as such to continue attracting customers to whom buying locally and directly from the producer is important,” Alm wrote.

Keeping it Truly Local in Budleigh Salterton

The small town of Budleigh Salterton on the coast in southwest England has a growing farmers market that insists on keeping itself truly local. Malcolm Florey, leader of the market project, explained the rules in a story in the North Devon Gazette about the upcoming season opening:

“All traders have to meet the strict criteria as produced by the project working group and agreed by the Chamber of Commerce. In particular the produce and products sold must be grown, reared, caught, or manufactured by the stallholder within the defined local area. In addition the principal producer, or someone directly involved in the production process, must attend each market and be on the stall.”

There's no shortage of local producers who can meet those “strict criteria” and are vying for spaces at the market. Florey had initially hoped to have a dozen producers lined up for the March 28 opening. He has signed up 15, and placed still others on a waiting list. Vendors at the monthly market, held on the last Friday of each month, will offer Red Devon beef, local pork, lamb, free range chicken, trout, venison, cheese, breads, cakes, pies and preserves, vegetables and plants, honey products and other items.

Big Business Comes to Santa Monica Market

An increasing percentage of the produce sold at the thriving farmers market in Santa Monica, Calif., winds up at high-end restaurants and gourmet grocery stores scattered all over the country, reports Russ Parsons in the Los Angeles Times. That’s because wholesale produce companies have become major buyers at the market, held each Wednesday and Saturday, where I have been a regular for years and years.

That is not exactly what farmers markets are supposed to be for.  They are supposed to be venues for sales directly to consumers. But farmers markets are also supposed to help generate business for local farms, and if possible, revive entire local food economies. And if the market in Santa Monica is doing just that by helping its farmers hook up with some big customers, who can complain about that?

Well, chefs can complain. Many of the leading chefs in Los Angeles have been major local supporters of the city’s farmers markets, particularly the well managed one in Santa Monica, for years. Now, they often have to watch as wholesale guys cart off cases full of the best stuff. A number of chefs expressed their concerns to Parsons for his story, “A Food Fight Over the Cream of the Crop.”

“Though no hard figures are kept, some growers say that as much as half of what they sell at the market is bought by produce companies. As a result, what had long been a kind of informal meeting place for many of Southern California's foodies and chefs is no longer quite so clubby. What chefs once regarded as a combination of culinary laboratory and kaffeeklatsch -- a place to find new ingredients and ideas and swap gossip, sometimes seemingly in equal proportions -- is more and more a place for big business.”

Santa Monica market manager Laura Avery, who has run the operation since 1982, just a year after it opened, is caught in the middle of the conflict. She is considering some innovative solutions. She told Parsons that one idea under consideration is to create a separate market for wholesalers, either at a different location or earlier in the morning at the site of the regular farmers market.

“There is certainly a wide range of opinions among farmers, among chefs and among the produce companies,” she said. “They're all trying to get more small-farm produce into restaurants, which is great. But we want to be sure to keep stuff on the tables for regular customers and smaller restaurants who come every week… Certainly, we're victims of too much good stuff, of too many happy customers. But I think we can make it work.”

Local Food and Fuel Efficiency

Anthony Flaccavento, who farms in the foothills of the Virginia Appalachians and sells his harvest at a farmers market in nearby Abingdon, is fed up with the naysayers who are popping up all over the place these days asserting that locally grown food isn’t so fuel-efficient after all. As noted here at Truly Local, the New York Times reported in December on a study showing that so many factors come into play in assessing any particular food item’s carbon footprint that it’s impossible to make generalizations. Newsweek recently added another dig:

It's the golden rule of the local-food movement: the fewer miles that food travels, the better for the environment. The only problem is, it may not be true.

Flaccavento weighed in with his answer to the skeptics in a commentary published in the Washington Post. Those who have “disparaged local food economies” are just plain wrong, he asserts, laying out some simple math to prove his point.

“A full tractor-trailer hauls about 32,000 pounds of produce. On average, according to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, this food travels about 1,750 miles from farm to market, in trucks that get about 5.5 miles per gallon. That's 320 gallons of fuel to transport 32,000 pounds, or about a gallon of fuel for every 100 pounds of food.

“My farm is an eight-mile round trip from the Abingdon farmers market. Our '94 Toyota pickup gets 15 miles to the gallon, fully loaded, so my trip to and from the market uses just over a half gallon of gas. We take and sell an average of 1,600 pounds of fresh produce every Saturday morning. This works out to 3,200 pounds of food for every gallon of fuel expended. That's 32 times more efficient.”

Of course, some farmers drive farther to markets and sell less, and some consumers drive farther to farmers markets and buy less than they would at a supermarket. Flaccavento acknowledged those variables and conceded that when they get tossed into the mix, the math is no longer so simple. He is not a hardcore locavore. But he remains firm in his conviction about the environmental superiority of locally-based food economies.

“When my wife and I get up at 5 on Saturday morning to start packing our truck, a cup of strong coffee and a glass of orange juice make it a little easier. So we're not dogmatic about local foods. But we also know, first hand, that locally produced foods are increasingly abundant, convenient and rewarding. The critics notwithstanding, buying local food is a sensible way to eat well, save fuel and reduce your carbon footprint.”

Arkansas Market Still Dominated by Peddled Produce

The Little Rock River Market is evidently quite a tourist draw, but it has long been dogged by complaints that it isn't a true farmers market. In fact, truly local farmers say they have been driven out by peddlers of cheap imported food. Complaints of this sort were documented two years ago. They surfaced again in a recent report on a local television station. Two-thirds of the produce sold in the so-called farmers market is brought in from out of state, said farmer Jody Hardin, who was blowing the whistle then and now.

There's nothing wrong with that, a city official seems to think. Bryan Day, Little Rock's assistant city manager, told the television news channel that bringing in produce from outside of Arkansas is a necessity.

"Because we're in Arkansas, to have a full market, that would be very hard to do, so we do have to allow produce to come in from other states and sometimes from other countries."

Hardin has had enough of that kind of thinking. He said he plans to open a purely local food stand with several other local farmers nearby.

Carbon-Footprint Hype Debunked

Here's a recent piece from the New York Times reporting on a study that punctures some of the overblown claims often bandied about these days about how eating locally grown food reduces greenhouse gas emissions. That may be true in some cases, but not always, according to researchers at the University of California in Davis. Too many other factors affect how energy efficient any particular consumer's food shopping practices are. The article concludes:

"Certainly, there are many reasons for eating local food — from supporting local farmers to a desire for fresher, potentially tastier food. The research in California, however, offers the prospect of a more nuanced debate on eating a low-carbon diet. In the meantime, [Gail] Feenstra, [a food system analyst at the university] said, the research has already led her to one conclusion: Don’t drive your sport utility vehicle to the farmers’ market, buy one food item and drive home again. Even if you are using reusable bags."

"Local" Market With Plenty of Wiggle Room

The founders of a new winter “farmers market” in Springfield, Mass., clearly know what buzz words will lure the sort of audience they are targeting with their venture. Why buy food shipped from California when you can buy local produce fresh off local farms from us, they told a reporter for The Republican, the daily paper in Springfield, who visited the market one day in December. During the reporter's tour of the market, a shopper dutifully piped in that she “wouldn't mind even paying slightly more for the local products.”

But just how “local” is the produce that will be sold at this “cold weather farmers market”? Well into the story, the founders, Blake Geryk and David F. Jackson, concede that the market is only "as local as possible." The produce they sell is also not necessarily straight from the farm. They have turned themselves into middlemen for farmers from near and, apparently also, from far away, though not quite so far away as California. As they explain their business model in the article in The Republican:

"We were asked by a group of food (cooperatives) to work as a distributor for them and decided to establish a farm-based distribution center that helps farmers to handle produce," said Jackson. "We're working with local farmers as well as with growers in the Carolinas, (and are) looking at Georgia," he said.

Limits Put on Market That Strayed From Mission

The "farmers market" in the Old Town section of Temecula, Calif., got a new, five-year lease on life. The city council on a 4-0 vote gave the managers of the sprawling market, Gale and George Cunningham,  the right to continue using city property for the weekly Saturday markets, ending a brouhaha that had simmered for months. Merchants in the neighborhood had complained that while it was billed as an outlet for local farm produce, the market had mutated into a sprawling, anything-goes street bazaar that was unfairly competing with them.

The city sought to address the concerns of local merchants by imposing limits on the market designed to turn it back into what it was meant to be, as the North County Times reported on Nov. 7.  The farmers will be certified, and nonagricultural and nonfood vendors will be allowed to sell only handcrafted items, health care products, and other items related to the theme of the farmers market. That leaves the door open to all sorts of merchandise, but to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, the new deal with the city requires the Cunninghams to submit a quarterly list of vendors and a detailed list of the items they sell to the city for review and approval.

The market could have spared itself a lot of grief if it hadn't strayed so far from its mission in the first place, said Phil Strickland, writing in the Nov. 12 North County Times.

Let's acknowledge that it is no longer a farmers market in the best sense of the words. If it was, the contract probably would have been approved with nary a word, save for the yea votes. But, because of apparent lax management and a lack of city enforcement, the farmers market has violated the rule regarding the nature of what can be sold. [The new rules are] good, but of little consequence if the city doesn't keep a close, in-person eye on the vendors, at least for now.

Indeed, the Cunningham's attorney, Alicen Wong, already seems to be angling to widen a loophole for vendors peddling various and sundry stuff. Before the ink on the deal was even dry, she had asked the city to possibly broaden the list of approved merchants that could be categorized as "guest vendors" to sell their goods two Saturdays per year, according to the North County Times.

Wayward 'Farmers Market' Booted From Fold

A farmers market association in the state of Washington booted the 12-year-old Federal Way Farmer's Market out of the fold after the market's management refused to evict a franchise bread vendor. The owners of the farmers market, Karla Kolibab, and her parents, David and Rose Ehl, insisted that since customers really seem to like Great Harvest Bread, they saw no reason not to offer it.

The trouble is, as the Washington State Farmers Market Association sees it, farmers markets are supposed to be venues where local farmers can sell locally grown produce, not places where anyone can sell whatever buyers happen to want. Outlets for national franchises are clearly against the rules that markets belonging to the association pledge to follow. They are crucially important rules, designed to assure that at a venue that presents itself to consumers as a “farmers market”

The market will be dominated by growers selling produce which they raised on their own nearby farm. All the produce sold will predominantly come directly from a nearby farm and will be fresh. All the crafts sold will be handmade by the vendor. All processed foods sold will by made by the vendor.

Over the summer, the association notifed the market in Federal Way, a town north of Tacoma, that the bread franchise violated the rules. The association also asked the management to discontinue an occasional swap meet. Pam Grueter-Schmidt, president of the market association, told a reporter for the Federal Way Mirror why strict rules are important, and why the town’s market was getting defrocked.

The WSFMA insists that goods sold at its affiliated farmers markets are grown or made in Washington state, Grueter-Schmidt said. Great Harvest Breads, though a Federal Way business, may not use local ingredients to produce its goods, she said. Furthermore, a swap meet does not fit into the association’s guidelines because it offers products that are not handmade, she said.

The markets managers, after conversations with their attorney, essentially told the association good riddance. They are continuing to run the market their way, with franchise bread hopping off the shelves. What’s next, a McDonald’s outlet? Nah, they wouldn’t do that -- though they seem to have something up their sleeve now that the association’s enforcers are off their back.

Kolibab and the Ehls assure the market will not introduce more franchises, but that Great Harvest Bread is staying only because that is what Federal Way citizens and market shoppers desire. ‘We are excited about what we can do now,’ Kolibab said. ‘It will allow us to grow a little bit more.’

Fancy New Market Facility Riles Some Farmers

You might think that if a small town spent $600,000 to build a large, fancy, timber-framed structure called Festhalle to house a farmers market, local market farmers would be delighted. That's not the case with some of the farmers who have been selling for decades at a farmers market in Cullman County, Alabama, according to a lengthy report in the Cullman Times. The new facility has let in larger farms than have traditionally served the 30-year old Cullman County Farmers Market, and that's a problem for some of the smaller producers, who fear they're about to be muscled out of town by the new venue.

Both markets claim that all of their vendors sell only what they grow. But large, costly farmers market structures seem to have a tendency to fill up with peddlers who are reselling wholesale produce, as has occurred in North Carolina and Arkansas, to cite two examples. Organizers of the old market in Cullman County seem to have their suspicions that peddlers are slipping in the door at Festhalle. As the Cullman Times reported:

“Both markets require vendors to grow and sell their own produce and each markets’ rules specify vendors must have obtained a valid growers’ permit from the county extension office, which is available free of charge and validates the vendor to be an original producer. The permit also gives sales-tax exemption to farmers. Festhalle market manager Jimmy Simms said growers from other counties are permitted to sell at the city’s market and are not charged additional fees for being from outside Cullman. However, CCFM President Dalford Tucker said the CCFM is intended for Cullman County farmers and ones who are loyal to CCFM.

“Tucker also said CCFM was created for small growers and excludes some of the bigger farms which buy produce and sell it in addition to what they grow. 'This market here is for people that grown their own produce,’ he said. 'We don’t want any big farmers. I consider a big farmer someone that has 30 acres and hires people to pick and sell their produce’.”

Are Farmers Markets a ‘Broken Model’?

The San Francisco Bay area has more thriving farmers markets – and successful market farmers – than just about any other region anywhere. But the proliferation of markets and market farmers has not necessarily made life any easier on the farmers who sell at the markets, as the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported. One farm featured in the story, Terra Firma Farm, a mainstay in the Berkeley farmers market for 15 years, is one of a number of prominent area farms that have recently retreated from farmers markets. The Chronicle explained:

“In late July, at summer's peak, Terra Firma posted a ‘dear friends and valued customers’ letter announcing that it was done for the season. From now on, the Winters-area farm will make the trek to the Berkeley market just a few months in late spring and early summer.

“ ‘Sales have gone down as the number of produce sellers has increased and the diversity of items on everyone’s tables has increased. This is great for shoppers but makes life rough for us,’ the letter explained.

“The farmers' market, says Paul Underhill, one of the three farmers who co-own Terra Firma, ‘is by far the hardest way for us to make a dollar…. The basic model, in my opinion, is a broken model’.”

The story named other farms that have recently pulled out of the Berkeley and Ferry Plaza markets, two of the Bay Area's flagship farmers markets. The good news is that Terra Firma and other entrepreneurial small farms are now well enough established, thanks in part to their farmers market customers over the years, that they have other outlets for their produce.

Other farmers quoted in the story weren’t as burned out on farmers markets. They explained how they have adapted to the competition by innovating, constantly looking for new crops to grow and new ways to add value to them. But they all agreed it’s very hard work. On market days, many California market farmer will get up well before dawn to start packing their trucks, drive several hours to the city to sell produce for half a day, then pack up and drive back to the farm, arriving not much before dark.

Now *This* Is a Farmers Market

Amidst all the sordid tales from far and wide about so-called "farmers markets" that are overrun with hucksters reselling wholesale produce as if they grew it themselves, here's a story about the real deal. The 40-year-old farmers market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, vigilantly guards against peddlers, and enforces rigid rules to ensure that all produce in the market is truly locally grown. The market is thriving.

Jake “The Melon Man” West is a rare exception to the regional rule. His farm is 165 miles away, out in the plains east of Albuquerque near Fort Sumner, outside the 15-county northern sector of the state. The Santa Fe New Mexican recently explained how West got in the door:

“Santa Fe Farmers Market Manager Shaun Adams said West has been coming to the market for about 30 of its 40 years, and is one of the few farmers allowed from outside the 15 counties of Northern New Mexico. 'His watermelon is such a good product that we have to (let him come to Santa Fe),' Adams added. 'Being down south, they have slightly different farming season than we do.'

“West’s wife, Leona Frances West, said they got involved with the Santa Fe Farmers Market after reading about it in New Mexico Magazine. Their oldest son, Kenneth, drove up with a load of cantaloupes but wasn’t allowed to come in at first. ‘They said, You stay right there. Don’t even get out of that pickup,’ she said. ‘But our cantaloupe, you can smell them everywhere. So people would come up and say, I want to buy one. So they finally said, OK, you can come in.’”

The market management outlines its local-only rule on the market association's Web site:

“Unlike most farmers' markets in the US, the Santa Fe Farmers Market assures that all products sold by its vendors are always locally grown by the people selling them. 100% of the vegetables, fruits, and nursery plants available at Santa Fe Farmers Markets are grown right here in northern New Mexico. The same goes for at least 80% of the ingredients and materials used to make all processed and craft items. Furthermore, no reselling is permitted.”

Rigidly enforcing the rule has paid off for real farmers, and for consumers, as well. Freed from unfair competition from cut-rate wholesale produce from far away, the local farmers have been encouraged to innovate, which has, in turn, increased demand. That, in turn, enabled the market to begin operating year-round in 2002. “With more and more farmers using extended growing techniques, the 'off season' becomes more successful every year,” the market management says. There are bigger plans for further expansion, with a new, indoor market facility slated to open next spring.

'Hucksters and Peddlers Are Evil. They Really Are.'

Robert Chorney, executive director of Farmers Market Ontario, got so fed up with the proliferation of peddlers reselling wholesale produce at most so-called “farmers markets” in the province that he started two new grower-only markets at the start of this summer. He had helplessly watched as peddling proliferated, particularly in the greater Toronto area. He was unable to act, even though he directs an association that claims 115 of the 135 farmers markets in Ontario as members, because FMO is a marketing, lobbying and grant administering organization with no authority to set or enforce rules at any of the local venues. The two new markets are the only ones that are directly managed by FMO, and apparently, they are the only markets in the greater Toronto area with strict rules against reselling.

In early September, I gave Chorney a call to find out how things have gone this summer. Considering that this is their first year, the markets have done well, he replied. There have been about 25 or 30 stalls at each market -- in the Liberty Village neighborhood every Sunday morning and in Woodbine every Friday afternoon. The markets, which will stay open through October, have gotten good local press and have drawn decent crowds. The concept has been so well received that four or five other communities have contacted Chorney about starting a grower-only market of their own next year. There likely will be several more next year, if he can recruit enough growers, Chorney said. Here’s what else he had to say, in response to my questions.

What sort of feedback have you gotten from customers?

“Our crowds have been incredibly supportive, and the fact that they verbalize it so much is wonderful. It’s really heartwarming to have any number of shoppers come up to us and say, ‘I’m so happy you’re here. God, this was long overdue. It’s so nice to be able to talk to farmers. I used to shop at such and such a market. I don’t go there anymore because the more this got talked about, the more I realized that half of those people aren’t even farmers’.”

Has the spread of peddling in markets in the area significantly hurt the real Ontario farmers?

“Oh, yes. Some of those markets with resellers have knocked the farmers right out. The farmers have said, ‘To hell with it. If the organizers want to have these people here, then let them have it.’ The real farmers have gone home. I’ve talked to farmers who have said, ‘This is my last year, I’ve had enough.’ Those hucksters and peddlers are evil. They really are. Produce is big business. They buy and sell the stuff. They pose as farmers. It’s really insidious in some of these markets.”

How have other farmers markets in Ontario responded to what you’re doing?

“This was our way of sending a very strong message not only to shoppers and to those huckster and peddlers and resellers, but to our members that there is a right way and a wrong way to run markets. There was a bit of a backlash from some of our members. They thought we were criticizing them. We said, no, if you have some of those resellers, why don’t you deal with it.”

What response have you gotten from the farmers?

“Our bar is set very high, as far as vendor participation. I hate to use this term but I think we’ve smoked out some farmers who grow but who also do a lot of supplementation. We know that the farmers left in our markets grow 100 percent of the things they bring.”

Are there enough farmers producing enough crops for more markets?

“That’s the big challenge. Over the winter, we’re looking at engaging someone on a part-time basis to do some recruiting at farm trade shows. It’s a learning exercise for farmers generally to see how high we set the bar and how serious we are about it.”

It must have also been a learning experience for shoppers. Do they understand that there may not be any local tomatoes even on a summery day in June?

“It’s beautiful when a shopper would come to us and say, ‘Why don’t you have any sweet corn, it's late June.'  We would say, 'Madam, the first crop of corn in Ontaria is coming out of the fields on July 7, 8, or 10th, in that range, not a day before.' She would say, 'Well, I bought sweet corn at a farmers market the other day.' We would say, 'Yes ma'm, but do you know where that sweet corn came from?' 'Well, I assume Ontario.' 'No, that corn's from Georgia.' We know because we've been tracking it. As we have those opportunities to make those points, it's really gratifying because when people are getting the proper information, they’ve been very supportive.”