Secrets of the Farmers' Market - From The Atlantic

I liked this piece and wanted to share it with the rest of you. A view of the Farmers' Market from the other side of the table! I especially like the part when Ms. Lipka talks about why she charges what she charges.

Secrets of the Farmers' Market
By Sara Lipka - From the Atlantic

Strolling through the farmers' market used to be my Sunday ritual. Crops, neighbors, a busker or two; it all felt timeless. Now I like to say that I went one day and never came back--just got on a truck back to a farm.

That's more or less true, but I do go back--to the other side of the market stall. Our farm sells at two weekly markets in Washington, D.C.: Sunday morning in Dupont Circle and Thursday afternoon in Penn Quarter. And let me tell you, going as a grower is a far cry from my old slide-on-the-flip-flops-and-scuff-down-Q-Street.

We start harvesting two days in advance, filling crates in the field, stacking them in the back of a pickup, and trucking them a half-mile to our farm center. There we wash and count and pack our produce into blue-and-gray plastic storage boxes, labeling them, for example, "Carrots, 20, Dupont." The stickers signal not only what we've got but how hard we have to hoist; root vegetables require more oomph than, say, lettuce. And forget the flip flops.

Prices do shift, I discovered. Cucumbers may go up if someone else is charging more; squash might fall.

On Sundays we're up by 4:30 a.m. to haul boxes out of two walk-in coolers and a storage room into our refrigerated box truck. Two or three of us sit across the cab as we roll down our gravel driveway onto asphalt. It's still dark setting off, but headed east, we see the sun rise.

The goal is to start setting up an hour and a half before the opening bell, maybe the only thing our market shares with that other one in New York. We line up our boxes along the curb, raise our tents and tables, and pile our harvest high. Layouts prompt much discussion and debate. What looks best? Features our marquee items? Lets customers flow through the stand? We weigh the relative merits of L shapes, T's, and U's; aisles, islands, and second tiers. Market design is about artistry and efficiency. And showing off.

Our farm's and others' bountiful displays--diminished by the time I used to arrive--still amaze me. Prices don't. As a customer, I sometimes balked at expensive arugula or leeks, either passing them by or invoking Michael Pollan's "hidden costs" of cheap food as I broke another 20. Now I look at string beans and remember how long it took me to pick them, in the rain; dry them on wire racks so they wouldn't rust; and mix green, purple, and yellow varieties. Not to mention seeding, weeding, and releasing wasps to prey on the beetles that devour the plants' leaves and dangling beans. $5 a quart? Bargain.

Prices do shift, I discovered. Just before we open, farmers surreptitiously scramble, eying one another's signs. Cucumbers may go up if someone else is charging more; squash might fall. We add quickly in our heads as customers gather. The early bird regulars have been standing there since 8:55, their beets and blackberries packed, crisp bills in outstretched hands as they wait for the bell.

Chatting with customers makes my day. A smiling elderly woman who always comes during the week also showed up one Sunday. "I already ate all the peas I bought!" she said. "I won't be able to last till Thursday." Another woman once approached me and whispered, "There's a very large spider on the chard." Other customers share tips, like crushing sweet stevia leaves with mint in mojitos. And sometimes a question starts a conversation. One woman asked if we had lemons. A man held up a sweet white onion, greens still attached, and asked if you could eat the bulb.

Chefs also wander by in their monogrammed jackets, scanning our spread. I'm always excited to see Nghi Tieu, the pastry chef at Café Atlantico, a few steps from our Thursday market. On Fridays the restaurant offers a farmers' market dinner, and Tieu not only shares her deliciously creative ideas, but brings us leftovers to taste. Recently she featured our carrots, in carrot cake with cream cheese foam, carrot-kumquat ice cream, and carrot-ginger croquants; and beets, in beet ice cream with chocolate crème fraîche and citrus beet soil. A bite like that can keep me on my feet for another few hours.

We nibble Tieu's desserts along with our own fruit, which customers ask to do, too. One day two men in Metro maintenance uniforms came over and tasted several cherries. But they didn't buy any, shaking their heads at the price of the pints. For all the thrills of the market--and my defense of the labor of each harvest--I worry about limited access to local food.

So does Freshfarm, the organization that runs our markets. With its help, our farm applied to accept "get fresh" checks from the federal Farmers' Market Nutrition Program for low-income women, infants, and children. Freshfarm also issues coupons to senior citizens through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and at two of the group's eight markets, customers can now pay with food stamps.

As each market ends and the final bell rings, gleaners stop by to take some of our remaining produce to shelters and food banks. On Sundays, the same homeless man always appears with his cart, grinning, nodding, and pointing at a head of lettuce or a bunch of chard. When I pick and pack for markets, I wonder who will end up eating each thing. It's nice to know it could be anyone.

This Week's Farmers' Markets

Markets in Philadelphia unless noted otherwise.

Rittenhouse Farmers' Market
Walnut Street (south sidewalk), west of 18th St.
Tueday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

University Square Farmers' Market
36th at Walnut St.
Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Girard & 27th Farm Stand Market
Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Fountain Farmers' Market
East Passyunk Ave., at 11th St. and Tasker St.
Wednesday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

East Lancaster
Historic Eastern Market
308 East King Street
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Wednesday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

City Hall Farmers' Market
Philadelphia City Hall
Wednesday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Broad & South Farmers' Market
Broad and South streets
Wednesday, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Cliveden Park
Chew Avenue and Johnson Street
Wednesday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Temple University Farmers' Market
Cecil B. Moore Avenue between Broad Street and Park Walk
Thursday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Weavers Way Farmers' Market
Carpenter Lane and Greene Street in front of High Point Cafe
Thursday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Jefferson Farmers' Market
On Chestnut Street east of 10th Street.
Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Norristown
Swede and Main streets
Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Oxford Circle
Oxford and Summerdale avenues
Thursday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Clark Park Farmers' Market
43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Thursday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Fairmount Farmers' Market
22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue
Thursday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Schuylkill River Park Farmers' Market
25th and Spruce streets
Wednesday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Palmer Park Farmers' Market
Frankford Avenue and East Palmer Street
Thursday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Germantown Farmers' Market
Germantown Avenue and Walnut Lane
Friday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Roxborough Farmers' Market
Ridge Avenue at entrance to Leverington Avenue parking lot.
Friday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Overbrook Farms Farmers' Market
63rd Street between Sherwood Road
and Overbrook Avenue
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

East Falls Farmers' Market
Midvale Avenue near Ridge Avenue.
Friday 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Fitler Square Farmers' Market
23rd and Pine streets
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Phoenixville Farmers' Market
Bridge Street and Taylor Alley
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wrightstown Farmers' Market
2203 2nd Street Pike (Rt. 232)
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Glenside Farmers' Market
Easton Rd. and Glenside Ave
Glenside, Pennsylvania
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Chestnut Hill Growers Market
Winston Road between Germantown Avenue
and Mermaid Lane.
Saturday, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm

Conshohocken
Fayette and West Hector streets
Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bryn Mawr Farmers' Market
Municipal Lot 7 on Lancaster Ave.
Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm

Catasauqua
Pine Street between Front and Railroad streets
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Manayunk Farmers' Market
Canal View Park on Main St., near Gay St.
Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm

Lansdowne Farmers' Market
Lansdowne Avenue Parking Lot
between Baltimore Pike and Stewart Avenue
Saturday, 9 a.m to 1 p.m.

Collingswood Farmers' Market
Between Collings Ave and Irving Ave.
Collingswood, New Jersey
Saturday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Headhouse Farmers' Market
2nd and Lombard streets
Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

North Hills-Oreland Farmers' Market
110 Pennsylvania Avenue near Twining Road
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Swarthmore Farmers' Market
In front of the Swarthmore Co-op
Saturday, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm

Lansdale
Railroad Plaza
Main and Green streets
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

West Reading
500 block of Penn Avenue
Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.