Kimberly Hagen, who raises sheep at Osprey Hill Farm in Putnamville, Vermont, has a beef with the management of the farmers market in nearby Montpelier. For years, Hagen has sold products from her own sheep including yarn from the wool, sheepskins, and chair pads and rugs woven with the yarn.
She was recently told that the rugs must go. Why? Because they aren’t made on her own farm. Her appeal of the ruling was rejected in March after a hearing.
Ultimately, the board agreed to let her stay for now, at least until another rug maker in compliance with the market rules applies to get in.
Hagen was grateful for the apparent reprieve, but pronounced the ruling “absurd” in an opinion piece published April 2 in the local paper, the Times Argus. As she explained, the wool is processed and spun by small businesses in nearby towns and woven into the rugs by other neighbors. “The rugs are a three-year project from sheep to finished product — all phases completed within the state boundary,” she wrote. “It’s not a huge enterprise, but it provides work for all these small businesses in the state.” The rugs, in short, support just the sort of local, agriculture-based small enterprise that famers markets are meant to encourage, she said.
It is all the more frustrating because the ruling has perverse effects, she asserted. “According to the market board’s interpretation of the regulations, I could go to Wal-Mart, buy skeins of yarn made in China, weave that into rugs myself, and could legitimately sell those at the market. But I cannot sell rugs made with wool from my farm, spun into yarn in Vermont, and woven by my neighbors.”
In the newspaper column she added, “I know how deeply important local markets and direct sales to consumer are for many in the business of agriculture. But for farmers who specialize in fiber products, this is especially challenging due to the cost of production and length of time required between harvest and finished product.”
I sent the manager of the farmers market, called the Capital City Farmers Market, in Montpelier an email seeking a response or an explanation of the ruling, but haven’t heard anything yet. (I visited the fine market in 2010 -- see photo to the left -- and posted a report about my visit on Seasonal Chef.) I’ll post an update here if I get a response from the manager.
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