Dear Farmers Market Customers ...

[Keger]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

Yep...vacation or something. We do get worn pretty thin by the end of the season, but ours is due to cold, wet, yucky weather. I can see how you need a break. You have a long market season. the markets around here start close to Memorial Day and end at the end of Sept/Oct. and we are ready to be done. Clean up the gardens, the greenhouses, hightunnels etc. and wind down.

Cool sounds really good right now.

Actually winter is the best season here. Down time is August, plant for fall in Sept and Oct.

[Wi-sunflower]

these are the very few of all the customers that are frustrating. Most customers are kind, considerate, thoughtful and VERY thankful

I'll second that. While this thread has mentioned the ugly customers, MOST are not like that at all.

Tho by the end of the season, some days I will do more work in the back of the stand rather than up front as I'm just not in the mood to deal with some of the stupid questions or a few customers I recognize will be "difficult". That way I'm not likely to snap at them.

Carol

[mari.beth]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

I love the sign that says "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy"
Marsha

That is hilarious!!

I cannot believe how rude people can be. Unfortunately, Knoxville's "farmer's market," which moves locations each day of the week, has very few stands with fresh produce. It is more like a flea market / bake sale than a farmer's market.

[Keger]

And yesterday ...................

Nothing but great, nice people.

Refreshing, to say the least.

[saltmarsh]

We sold at the local farmer's market for the first time yesterday (Saturday). It was quite enjoyable.

The hours for the market are 8 AM to 12 noon Sat. We arrived to set up at 7:30 and were the 3rd grower there. Greg from about 30 miles away was selling peaches from his farm and had friends from out of town visiting who came along to help. Greg played Banjo, accompanied by a friend on Guitar until things got too busy with customers. Great tasting peaches. Doug had peppers and blueberries from a community about 8 miles norths. He was trying to make a go of it on his old home place.

A few minutes later Kevin and his wife set up with homemade breads and preserves and baby bok choy. They have Poultry In Motion Farm which is local. Then Wilber and Carlene arrived with tomatoes, corn, blueberries, eggplant, cucumbers, okra, jellies and jams.

Mickey the market manager arrived just before 8:00 and set up a table with free coffee for vendors and customers. He came over in a bit and introduced himself, answering our questions and finding where we were growing and whether we had a high tunnel or field operation. It turned out he had been by our field several times and had wondered what was going on there. He promised to stop by and look at our operation in the next couple of weeks.

We only had tomatoes for sale this time. About 20 varieties of the 70 or so we're growing. And the people loved them. All the larger ripe slicer tomatoes sold out fairly quickly. Sold most of the medium and small tomatoes also. The #2 tomatoes (cutters and canners) were mixed together and sold in 5# bags and that went well.

Lots of questions were asked and answered. Plenty of children around, all well behaved. No Grumps or Mugwumps in site.

We quit at 11:30 and canned what was left. It made 4 quarts of tomatoes for soups and chili.

Can't wait for next Saturday, maybe I'll get to make more friends then. Claud

[Vespertino]

Since my tomato growing isn't going so well I went to my local farmers market. I was a bit disappointed to see that some vendors seemed to be selling produce from California- or so the new, crisp boxes seemed to indicate. I was a bit bummed since I prefer local, and looked around and found a small vendor that seemed legit (texas boxes) and bought some yummy tomatoes and a bunch of fresh kirbys. I have to buy some more bacon and make some BLT's! Next week I'm buying some squash and more tomatoes from the same vendor.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by Vespertino

Since my tomato growing isn't going so well I went to my local farmers market. I was a bit disappointed to see that some vendors seemed to be selling produce from California- or so the new, crisp boxes seemed to indicate. I was a bit bummed since I prefer local, and looked around and found a small vendor that seemed legit (texas boxes) and bought some yummy tomatoes and a bunch of fresh kirbys. I have to buy some more bacon and make some BLT's! Next week I'm buying some squash and more tomatoes from the same vendor.

Sorry to hear your tomato growing isn't going so well. I am wondering though, what are kirby's?
It is hard finding a producers market I think. It is really hard work and most vendors don't want to work tht hard to produce that much to sell. I grow on maybe, at most, 2 acres (fruit trees, grapes, raspberries, and all the garden vegetables and corn) and it is 6 days a week work with the 3 markets I do...I sweat through untold changes of clothes, drink copius amounts of water/tea. always have dirty hands, disgusting looking fingernails, etc. growing for a market is hard work and many small markets seem to fail if there aren't the "purveyors" of fine fruits and vegetables to draw more people. It is a catch 22, few vendors, few customers, few customers, few vendors. Vendors need to have different veg. and fruits to choose from because we as consumers have too many choices at the grocery store (imo) and think that a vendor should have way too many items to sort through to take their concept of the best one....Keep looking for the small growers at your markets and do support them. They will thank you and appreciate you as their customer.

[saltmarsh]

Vespertino, the California produce box doesn't necessarily mean shipped in produce. I'm a small producer living in a small town.

Check the price for produce boxes. And the lids are sold separately. http://www.avisbag.com/CORRUGATED.html

We only have one supermarket in town and the produce manager is happy to save any good produce boxes he has for me. One less thing he has to breakdown and pay to have hauled away and it serves the purpose of getting my produce from the farm to the market.

I line my used boxes with newspaper, so that might be a better way to check. Claud

[joseph]

One time I was horrified at myself. I often bunch produce using rubber bands. So when a lady gave me rubber bands to recycle, I used them to bunch my onions. The next week people were asking me: "Why did your onions say 'Product of Mexico?'". Oops. I don't recycle rubber bands or produce boxes any more. If it's got someone else's label on it, it is not allowed on my farm, and triple-sure not at the farmer's market.

[Dewayne mater]

Vesp - head on over to the Coppell Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. All locally grown/raised stuff. Nice folks everywhere. A few times I've found some heirloom tomatoes there, but not really this year. The markets are generally as good as the volunteers that run them make them and the Coppell folks are very active and present at all times. www.coppellfarmersmarket.org/‎ Shouldn't be too far from Grapevine.

Dewayne Mater

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by saltmarsh

Vespertino, the California produce box doesn't necessarily mean shipped in produce. I'm a small producer living in a small town.

Check the price for produce boxes. And the lids are sold separately. http://www.avisbag.com/CORRUGATED.html

We only have one supermarket in town and the produce manager is happy to save any good produce boxes he has for me. One less thing he has to breakdown and pay to have hauled away and it serves the purpose of getting my produce from the farm to the market.

I line my used boxes with newspaper, so that might be a better way to check. Claud

Thank you for the link to that site, it helps a lot. Some of the boxes may have been new, but I did see California addresses stamped on many of them, and the nectarines at one stand still had the California sticker on the fruit. While I didn't ask them directly whether or not they were recycling boxes they'd found to transport the produce to market, the stickers on the fruit were very telling. Next time I think I'll just come out and ask about the boxes and see what the vendors tell me.

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

Sorry to hear your tomato growing isn't going so well. I am wondering though, what are kirby's?
It is hard finding a producers market I think. It is really hard work and most vendors don't want to work tht hard to produce that much to sell. I grow on maybe, at most, 2 acres (fruit trees, grapes, raspberries, and all the garden vegetables and corn) and it is 6 days a week work with the 3 markets I do...I sweat through untold changes of clothes, drink copius amounts of water/tea. always have dirty hands, disgusting looking fingernails, etc. growing for a market is hard work and many small markets seem to fail if there aren't the "purveyors" of fine fruits and vegetables to draw more people. It is a catch 22, few vendors, few customers, few customers, few vendors. Vendors need to have different veg. and fruits to choose from because we as consumers have too many choices at the grocery store (imo) and think that a vendor should have way too many items to sort through to take their concept of the best one....Keep looking for the small growers at your markets and do support them. They will thank you and appreciate you as their customer.

I understand, people like to one-stop-shop these days and I see how importing produce to meet expectations of customers when it comes to variety would make a difference. Some customers don't like being told that something isn't in season or can't be grown locally because of climate.

Personally I really love and prefer small growers that specialize in a few types of produce. I had my collection of favorite stands at the union square farmer's market for two decades Don't get me started about the fall apples at the Terhune Orchard stand, I could go on and on... And they sold the best apple pies. After chatting with the farmer I found out that he had the Dean of Pastry Arts at the CIA come up with the recipe and train his bakers on how to make the pies.

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Vesp - head on over to the Coppell Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. All locally grown/raised stuff. Nice folks everywhere. A few times I've found some heirloom tomatoes there, but not really this year. The markets are generally as good as the volunteers that run them make them and the Coppell folks are very active and present at all times. www.coppellfarmersmarket.org/‎ Shouldn't be too far from Grapevine.

Dewayne Mater

OMG OMG OMG... A Farmer's Market right around the corner from Hard 8 BBQ? So I can get my BBQ and veggie/fruit fix all in the same day? I love Texas I'm going to check it out this Saturday. Thanks for the tip! It couldn't hurt to shop at both Grapevine and Coppell, plus it will give my hubs something to do other than watch TV.

[Keger]

Originally Posted by joseph

Yup. There are some days, when it's too hot, and my leg is aching too bad, and I have an allergy, and it's muddy, and I want to skip going to market. And then I think of Mandy, and Pat, and Casey, and that guy that always stops by to chat and never buys anything and I don't have a clue what his name is, and then I pick the berries, and harvest the peas, and pull the onions and head into the farmer's market.

Funny you mention that ....

One guy, neatest guy maybe ever comes by at purple hull pea season and buys them by the bucket. He is in his late 70's, and from Baghdad, Iraq. Lost everything there, had it taken actually, and is just a neat, great guy to talk with.

Cooks the peas, shell and all, in boiling water and vinegar, with some onion. That's it, downs them bad boys shell and all....

He says we are too civilized, and waste too much. I just say hey, you're tougher than I am!

But yeah, great people you meet make up for the other.

[Vespertino]

Dewayne:

I went to the Coppell Farmer's Market yesterday. Thanks so much for the tip! You were right that heirlooms were scant, but I found some small ones along with heirloom garlic and stumbled across one bread vendor with an oven on site, they sold what is probably the BEST sourdough I've ever had and I don't like sourdough so that's a big compliment to the baker. I saw a lot of melons for sale and was very tempted, but hubs is low-carbing at the moment and I didn't want to get a whole melon for myself.

The Grapevine farmer's market seemed to have a better tomato selection, with the caveat that it's possible some where shipped from out of state. But the Coppell Market had more vendors and product variety.

Loving farmer's markets as much as I do I'll be going to both

[ScottinAtlanta]

Originally Posted by Keger

Funny you mention that ....

One guy, neatest guy maybe ever comes by at purple hull pea season and buys them by the bucket. He is in his late 70's, and from Baghdad, Iraq. Lost everything there, had it taken actually, and is just a neat, great guy to talk with.

Cooks the peas, shell and all, in boiling water and vinegar, with some onion. That's it, downs them bad boys shell and all....

He says we are too civilized, and waste too much. I just say hey, you're tougher than I am!

But yeah, great people you meet make up for the other.

Great story! He is sure right about waste. Practically everything has a use, even if it is feeding the myco in the compost.