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.’

Comments

[Jim]

Bravo for the Farmer's market managers for keeping a truly local product, and shame on the WSFMA for discriminating against a business based arbitrarily on the business's legal structure. Great Harvest buys their wheat directly from farmers and mills their own flour right in the store for God's sake! They buy all of their ingredients from local suppliers and make everything by hand. How many so-called "local" bakeries can trace the bag of wheat in their store back to the field it was grown on like Great Harvest can? How many "local" bakeries use mixes, or frozen dough? Great Harvest uses none of that - they are 100% made from scratch. Great Harvest embodies the true spirit of locally-made, fresh-from-the-farm food. The WSFMA really has their head up their you-know-what.