top trends in farmers’ markets - united...

Top Trends in Farmers’ Markets

Market Growth.The USDA reported that there were 2,863 farmers’markets operating in 2000, up 63% from the 1,755markets just six years earlier. The farmers’ market re-naissance over the last 30 years has revived a rich tra-dition of vibrant, entrepreneurial culture. It is hap-pening as communities seek to reconnect with theirroots, revitalize the local farm scene, provide freshproduce to urban populations, gain access to organicproducts, and create vibrant communities. Farmers’markets are bringing a farm and quality food con-sciousness into the minds of millions of people.

Larger Growers Entering the Markets.With the flood of produce imports com-ing into the country from overseas, evenlarger commercial growers are taking a sec-ond look at high-return marketing out-lets like farmers’ markets. Felix Fly, man-ager with the West Tennessee Farmers’Market in Jackson, Tennessee, says thenumber of farmers applying to sell in theirfarmers’ market blossomed in 1999. “Nor-mally we have 12 or 14 new vendor applicants eachyear, but this year we’ve had 51 by August,” he said.“Due to the low prices this year in cattle, cotton, soy-beans, hogs, and corn, we’ve found a lot of growerstrying something new. I just got a call from someonegrowing pumpkins who had never grown them be-fore.” Similarly, a Louisiana citrus grower who for-merly had been selling all his produce wholesale fi-nally came to the Crescent City Farmers’ Market af-ter repeated requests from the manager. Selling outwithin an hour, he called his wife to bring more fruit,“Oh my God, I’ve been doing it all wrong!”

Meeting the Demand for Pesticide- & GMO- FreeFood.The growth in farmers’ markets is fueled by publicawareness on how to eat better. Customers want to

know where their food is grown and who grew it.More and more customers are becoming aware of ge-netically-engineered crops (“genetically-modified or-ganisms,” or “GMOs”), and they are willing to spendextra for pesticide- and GMO- free food. Accordingto by Jeff Cole, Executive Director, MassachusettsFederation of Farmers’ Markets: “We’re hearing morequestions and concerns from customers regardingGMOs. They don’t know where the products are com-ing from in the supermarkets, or what’s been used inproducing them, and they have difficulty getting an-swers to those questions in supermarkets. At the farm-

ers’ markets they’re dealing directly with theproducer and they can get answers to theirquestions and see the face of the person whogrew it.”

Ethnic Foods Are Hot!According to Steve Salts, truck farmer andauthor of the upcoming book, “Around theWorld at Farmers’ Market,” ethnic foods canbe a profitable item for growers who take thetime to educate themselves about the native

foods and cultural backgrounds of their ethnic cus-tomers.

Ethnic groups have generally been considered alower-priced market compared to Anglo-Americancustomers, because they are accustomed to buying atopen-air markets at comparatively low prices. Yet Saltssays that customer loyalty, volume, and consistencycan make up for this. The coveted “yuppie” market,Salts points out, rarely buy in appreciable quantity.“We find that so-called ethnic customers buy and usefresh veggies greatly in excess of their percentage ofthe total farmers’ market customers, and patronizefarmers’ markets more than do Anglo-Americans.”The proportion of ethnics in the population is grow-ing rapidly, Salts points out, and if present trendscontinue, the Census Bureau projects that non-His-

panic European Americans will be a minority by theyear 2050, with the nation 25% Hispanic, 10-12%Asian-Pacific Islander and 16% black.

Farmers’ Markets Go Online.

An increasing number of markets are es-tablishing internet web sites where they canpost news about upcoming events at themarket, feature up and coming crops, andpost seasonal recipes for their customers.Many of them also send out a weekly e-mail newsletter to their internet-savvy cus-tomers, and even establish links on theirweb sites to individual farmer/vendors’ web pages.

Some growers who sell at the markets are also find-ing that internet e-mail is a quick and inexpensiveway to keep in regular contact with their farmers’market customers. Regular customers send weekly e-mail orders to the farm and then find it pre-baggedand waiting for them at the market — this saves themfrom having to come early to purchase items that usu-ally sell out. In addition, customers can e-mail spe-cial requests for the farmer to bring to the market.

Community Rejuvenation and Economic Revital-ization.Farmers' markets transform cities. City planners na-tionwide now recognize the value of the farmers'market. They have evidence that it revitalizes a down-town area like nothing else, by creating an activemeeting place and income-producing community.More and more cities are viewing farmers’ markets asa positive addition to their cities. The National MainStreet Program has incorporated markets as a vehicleto rejuvenate declining downtown areas.

The “New” Farmers’ Market: Educating the Publicabout Local Food and Agriculture.“The New Farmers’ Market” takes its title from thelast section in the book which talks about how thevibrancy of urban centers goes hand-in-hand with thevitality of the surrounding rural areas — with farm-

ers’ markets as their meeting place.At the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual meet-

ing in June, 2001, the policy “Promoting the Preser-vation of Urban Influenced Farmland” wasadopted. This policy recognizes that the pres-ervation of nearby farmland helps providefood supply stability while contributing to theoverall quality of life in metropolitan areas.

Co-author Vance Corum states: “Thefarmers’ market renaissance over the last 30years has revived a rich tradition of vibrant,entrepreneurial culture. It is happening as

communities seek to reconnect with their roots, revi-talize the local farm scene, provide fresh produce tourban populations, gain access to organic products,and create vibrant communities.

Amongst the public education programs featuredin “The New Farmers’ Market” are Taste Festivals,Shop with the Chef, Meet the Producer, CookingWith Kids, the Farmers’ Market Salad Bar Program,and the Senior Nutrition Program.

As Pam Roy, executive director of the Friends ofthe Farmers’ Markets in Santa Fe, New Mexico, says:“We want people to be conscious about where theybuy their food and why. We want to let people knowthey can be involved in their local food system, andthat by buying a tomato that is grown locally in thecommunity instead of the supermarket variety, they’resupporting the local economy.”

Excerpted with permission from “The New FarmersMarket: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers& Communities,” by Vance Corum, MarcieRosenzweig, and Eric Gibson. To order, send $24.95+ $4.50 shipping to: “QP Distribution,” 22260 “C”St.,Winfield, KS 67156. Credit card orders call 888-281-5170. California residents add $1.75 tax. 8 X10, 272 pps.

1THE NEW FARMERS’ MARKET

Why Farmers Markets AreGrowing

Food importsWith the flood of produce importscoming into the country from over-seas, even larger commercial grow-ers are taking a second look at high-return marketing outlets like farm-ers’ markets. Felix Fly, managerwith the West Tennessee Farmers’Market in Jackson, Tennessee, saysthe number of farmers applying tosell in their farmers’ market blos-somed in 1999. “Normally we have12 or 14 new vendor applicantseach year, but this year we’ve had51 by August,” he said. “Due to thelow prices this year in cattle, cot-ton, soybeans, hogs, and corn,we’ve found a lot of growers tryingsomething new. I just got a callfrom someone growing pumpkinswho had never grown them be-fore.”

Urban growthAccording to Rose Koenig, Mgr.,Haile Village Farmers Market,Gainesville, FL, “The agriculturaleconomy is changing drastically inthe U.S. What was profitable 50years ago may not be profitabletomorrow. As land gets more ex-pensive because of urban growth,small farms of 100 acres or less willget more and popular. This leavesgrowers with the choice of sellingthe land to developers or gettinginto higher value farming such asdirect marketing. Some growers

will sell out, and some will reduceacreage and start growing for a lo-cal market.”

Health, taste & local foodThe growth in farmers’ markets isfueled by public awareness on howto eat better. Customers want toknow where their food is grownand who grew it.

“People are following a healthylifestyle, and are putting more at-tention into what they're eating.—Charlie Haney, Mgr., Olympia

Farmers’ Market, WA

Farmer BenefitsSellers at farmers’ markets often geta larger cash return for their prod-uct than through wholesale mar-keting and get paid cash-in-hand,instead of waiting 30-90 days orlonger. There is also the pride andfun in selling to the people whoenjoy eating your produce.

[See also Chapter One, “Advan-tages, Disadvantages”]

Consumer BenefitsMost farmers’ market customerscome to the markets for the supe-rior quality and freshness, unusualvarieties, and a chance to supportlocal agriculture and meet thefarmers who grow their food. Andif these shoppers can get muchhigher quality at a competitiveprice, they're getting a lot bettervalue for their money!

“American consumers want sev-eral qualities in their food bas-

kets beyond those provided byfactory farming with its stress onvolume, uniformity and price.They want local or regional, andhence fresher, food. They wantvaried food—no iceberg lettucebut more heirloom tomatoes.They want food with fewerhealth risks from chemicals. Theywant food produced with meth-ods less likely to harm the envi-ronment. And they want to re-store contact with the actual pro-ducer of the food.”—Susan Planck, Wheatland Vegetable

Farms, Purcellville, VA

Taste and freshnessFarmers' markets offer shoppers theopportunity to purchase fresh-picked, good-tasting, seasonal pro-duce from the farmers who growit. Direct-from-the-farm productsare often picked at the peak ofmaturity only a day or even hoursbefore they are sold at farmers’markets. Once people taste what’savailable at the farmers’ marketthey don’t want to go back to thetaste they get from the supermar-ket. Nothing substitutes for a vine-ripened, fresh-picked tomato, or apeach, corn or baby bok choy.

“Commercial fresh tomatoesepitomize the shortcomings ofmodern produce, but manyfruits and vegetables also sufferfrom reduced flavor. One studyshowed that the typical peach is2 1/2 weeks old by the time itgets to the grocery store. By con-

Benefits of Farmers’ Markets for Vendors, Consumers & Communities

2 THE NEW FARMERS’ MARKET

trast, that same peach found at afarmers' market was probablypicked in the past two days.” —“Taking It To the Streets,” Farmer

to Farmer

VarietyAt farmers' markets customers areable to sample new products andvarieties not ordinarily found in su-permarkets. While supermarketsusually offer only one or a few va-rieties of a product, direct marketsmay sell many different varieties ofone product, such as apples,peaches, peppers or tomatoes, aswell as exotic and heirloom prod-ucts, organically grown produce,and ethnic foods.

ValueMany markets have been estab-lished to provide customers withfresh produce at lower prices thanlocal supermarkets. In other casesthe goal has been to provide fresher,superior product at competitiveprices. Either way, the customerfinds better value, which is definedby the relationship between prod-uct and price.

SocialFarmers markets are fun! Farmersmarkets are important socialevents. People run into friends andtalk, or meet new ones includingfarmers to exchange recipes. In fact,some markets have adopted the slo-gan: “Come for the freshness; stayfor the fun!”

Some say that the attraction offarmers' markets is fundamentallya human one. Shoppers at farmers’markets have seven times as manysocial interactions in a farmers'market as they do in a grocery store!Certainly, they are a return to aform of business and social inter-action common for thousands of

years, where consumers purchasedgoods more directly from thosewho produced them.

Customers come to trust farm-ers. Other customers intuitivelyfollow that trust. The relationshipone has with a produce clerk whodoesn’t know what country the to-matoes come from simply can’tcompare with a friendship with afarmer who can tell you what hissoil tastes like, why she doesn’t ir-rigate, how the Ace compares witha Zebra, the recipe for her bestsauce, or how many weeks beforehe says so-long for the season.

Urban/Rural ConnectionMany farmers as well as consum-ers report that the farmer-con-sumer bond is the heart and soulof the markets. An article in NWHealth (May/June 1995) noted:“These stalls of sustenance may bethe last place where many peoplecan reconnect with food and itssources. The growers' offerings,which vary week to week, remindus that there is a season for every-thing.”

Community BenefitsA successful farmers' market can bea tremendous resource for a com-munity, large or small. Fresh foodis available at a reasonable price, thelocal agricultural economy as wellas the marketplace area receives aneconomic boost, and a festive andcommunity-enhancing social cen-ter draws people together. Farmers’markets, in addition, help fighthunger through their participationin food recovery programs and fed-erally funded subsidy programs.

Gathering placeWhen Shakespeare comes to theIthaca Farmers’ Market alongsidecentral New York’s Cayuga Lake,

people are reminded of the market’srole in integrating economic, socialand cultural activities in one place.

“To visit a Greenmarket is to real-ize the power that a farmers' mar-ket can wield in transforming anurban space into an exciting andvibrant community. The morethat Greenmarkets become fix-tures in city neighborhoods, themore they resemble the prover-bial backyard fence where neigh-bors meet to exchange recipesand gossip and concerns abouttheir streets.” — Barriers & Opportunities for Direct

Marketing, Farmers’ Market Trust

Barriers bridgedWhenever people from variouswalks of life cross paths, there is anopportunity for learning. Stereo-types are broken. Voters no longerlook dispassionately at rural issueswhen farming friends may be af-fected.

In many communities a politi-cian cannot be elected withoutcampaigning at the farmers’ mar-ket. In San Luis Obispo, Califor-nia, every candidate is given threeminutes on a flatbed trailer fes-tooned with red, white and bluebunting. “Thursday Night” isabout more than simply food trans-actions; it is a community event.

“At first farmers' markets saleswere viewed by town fathers asinconsequential. But now they'rereally beginning to understandthe vital camaraderie that existsbetween the farmers' marketseller and city folk.” —Jim Jones, FM Representative, Texas

Dept. of Agriculture

3THE NEW FARMERS’ MARKET

Economic revitalizationFarmers' markets transform cities.City planners nationwide now rec-ognize the value of the farmers'market. They have evidence that itrevitalizes a downtown area likenothing else, by creating an activemeeting place and income-produc-ing community. More and morecities are viewing farmers’ marketsas a positive addition to their cit-ies. The National Main Street Pro-gram has incorporated markets asa vehicle to rejuvenate decliningdowntown areas.

“Most managers felt that farmers'markets and the farmers who at-tend them are viewed positivelyby their host communities. Themajority of market managers(78%) felt that their marketspositively affect local businesses,primarily by bringing customersfrom both inside and outside thecommunity. Several managersgave examples of businesses lo-cated in the vicinity of their mar-kets that had expanded theirhours to benefit from the in-creased customer traffic. This re-vitalization function is com-monly used by downtown mer-chant associations and redevelop-ment agencies as a rationale forstarting a farmers' market.”— Farmers’ Markets and Rural Devel-

opment Project

“The downtown merchants arebehind the markets because res-taurant owners realize thatpeople don’t buy produce at themarkets to eat, but to take home.Having the markets nearby givespeople more reasons to comedowntown. As an inducement tosell at the market, many restau-rants guarantee that farmers willsell out—if they don’t sell out by

3 p.m., the restaurant will buythe remaining produce for theirnext few days’ needs. They en-courage the farmers to bring awide variety. There also has beena shift in the make-up of down-town businesses. They don’t havea lot of grocery stores, so in thedowntown there is not a lot ofcompetition. The merchants per-ceive the markets as complemen-tary rather than directly competi-tive.”—Donald Coker, Florida Dept. of Ag

and Consumer Services

Grocery impactKen Meyer, produce buyer forthree Alfalfa’s Markets in Colorado,says his chain has been a loyal cus-tomer to many of the growers do-ing business in the open-air mar-ket. “The markets get people ex-cited about organics, and havingthem just down the street doesmean some cross-over business.”

“Farmers' markets probably af-fect grocery stores to the tune ofless than one percent of their pro-duce sales,” says Jim Anderson ofthe Missouri Department of Agri-culture. “Our markets - 55 state-wide, most in rural communities -are only open between two and sixdays a week, six months a year, andthey don't seem to have any im-pact on the grocery store's producesection.”

For many years the family-owned Williams Brothers super-markets in San Luis ObispoCounty, CA, allowed farmers’ mar-kets in their parking lots. It gavethem a leg over their competitorsand showed their support for localfarmers.

“We’re about a block fromAlfalfa’s Market and they wereconcerned about competition.

Now 13 years later, they discov-ered produce sales went up 30%on Saturday when we wereopen.”— John Ellis, Boulder FM, CO

Improved identity“According to Richard McCarthy,executive director of the Eco-nomics Institute, "The Marketmakes downtown safer becausethere are people on the street. Itchanges the feel of the neighbor-hood from that of a cold, imper-sonal urban environment to thatof a community. Even vendorswho once moved away from NewOrleans now have a completelydifferent experience of the citywhen they come to town forMarket.”— Economics Institute, 1999 Report

to the Community

“Downtown businesses have alsobenefited from the Market’s pres-ence on Saturday mornings—which, otherwise, is not a busytime of the week for most ofthem. The AB Freeman studyestimated that downtown busi-nesses gain additional income of$450,000 a year as a result of theMarket, and a 30%-70% in-crease in Saturday-morning traf-fic as a result of the Market.”— Economics Institute, 1999 Report

to the Community

Access“Ironically, farmers' need for moreand diverse markets occurs at atime when supermarket reloca-tion to the suburbs has left manyPhiladelphians underserved. In-ner city residents in particularhave little choice but to rely onconvenience stores that providevery limited access to fresh fruitsand vegetables. The diets of

4 THE NEW FARMERS’ MARKET

lower-income residents offerpoor nutrition, affecting thehealth and well being of indi-viduals and their communities.Establishing farmers’ markets inthese low-income communitiescan serve the dual objectives ofincreased access to fresh producefor city residents and improvedfarm profitability.”— Barriers & Opportunities for Direct

Marketing, Farmers’ Market Trust,1999.

The impetus for farmers’ mar-kets in southern California camefrom the Interfaith Hunger Coali-tion of the Southern CaliforniaEcumenical Council. Concernedabout supermarket flight and in-ner-city residents’ access to freshproduce at reasonable prices, theyspearheaded a three-year, seven-market development programwhich exceeded its goals.

Donna Bryan vocalized similarconcerns through Seeds of Hopewhen starting numerous markets inSouth Carolina. The faith commu-nity has been critical in develop-

ing countless markets by providingchurch lots as market locations,giving financial support and lead-ing many organizing efforts.

Local food and greenspaceLindsey Ketchel, horticultural mar-keting specialist with the VermontDepartment of Agriculture, Foodand Markets, reported on a recentdepartment study of Vermont con-sumers. More than 60 percent wereinterested in buying local productsand said they’d spend up to 10 per-cent more just to support local fam-ily farms. “Consumers are lookingfor ways to support the localgreenspace,” Ketchel said. “At thesame time, it’s a challenge for con-sumers is to find local products.They can’t go to a Grand Unionsupermarket and find local pro-duce. Farmers’ markets are not justabout buying food,” she continued.“They bring farmers and consum-ers together in a community way.It’s all about celebrating foodgrown in our own regions.”

“From an ecological standpoint,shopping at farmers’ marketshelps support the greenbelt byenabling local farmers to becomeeconomically sustainable. It sup-ports locally-based food produc-tion and distribution, thus re-ducing energy consumed ontransportation. It also reducessolid wastes, by eliminating over-packaging of foods and supportsenvironmentally sound and sus-tainable farming practices be-cause family farmers tend to usefewer synthetic chemicals.”— Lynn Bagley, with the Golden Gate

FM Assoc. in Novato, CA, quotedin To Market! To Market! Univer-sity of Mass. Cooperative Exten-sion System

“When you shop at a supermar-ket only 21% of every dollarspent goes toward actual foodproduction whereas at the mar-ket more than four times thatgoes back to the growers.”—Ann Harvey Yonkers, Mgr.,

FRESHFARM Market, Washing-ton, DC

© 2001 by New World Publishing. All rights reserved. May not be reprinted in any fashion except through writtenpermission. Exerpted from The New Farmers’ Market, by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig and Eric Gibson. To order TheNew Farmers’ Market, call (888) 281-5170 or contact New World Publishing, 11543 Quartz Dr. #1, Auburn CA 95602;(ph.) (530) 823-3886 , (fax) (810) 279-1959; www.nwpub.net.

An interview with Steve Salts, truckfarmer and author of Around theWorld at Farmers’ Market: A Hand-book for Small-scale Grower-Market-ers of Ethnic and Heirloom Veg-etables, Fruits, and Herbs. [See Re-sources, Chapter 2]

Q: Aren’t ethnic groups gener-ally a lower-priced market com-pared to the Anglo-American cus-tomer? Aren’t they used to buyingat open-air markets at compara-tively low prices?

Salts: Yes and no. It’s certainlynot a top dollar market like sellingto trendy yuppies, but it’s definitelynot bottom either. You’ve just gotto be prepared to haggle. MostAmerican farmers don’t like hag-gling — it runs against mostAmericans’ grain. Yet most ethnicgroups just don’t like having a setprice. I usually set a price at high-middle, and I’m willing to dickerdown to middle or low-middle.

I tried an experiment at a farm-ers’ market once. I set a price ri-diculously low on some cucumbersand yard-long beans, almost givingthem away. Some ethnic custom-ers still wouldn’t buy it, because Iwouldn’t dicker! The next week Iset the price high, and they dick-ered down and ended up payingtwice what they would have got-ten it for the week before! It’s notso much the price they get it for, itjust runs against their cultural grainto pay the asking price.

Selling to Ethnic Groups

Q: What are some of the advan-tages of selling to ethnic custom-ers?

Salts: Customer loyalty, volume,and consistency. Once ethnic cus-tomers find that you’ve got whatthey want, and that you are nice tothem and cater to their culture,they will come back week afterweek, and year after year. Sellingto ethnic folks may not be for ev-eryone. You have to enjoy dealingwith peoples from other cultures.

I’ve found ethnic groups to be agreat niche market for me becausethere’s very little competition. Imay not be getting the price thatsome other sellers are getting sell-ing to the yuppies, but my ethniccustomers are a lot more stable.Yuppies can be very trendy, but theChinese, the Indians, the Arabs andthe Vietnamese have been buyingthe same vegetables for thousandsof years. Ethnic customers aren’t somuch into food preservation, likecanning — but many do make pre-serves such as kimchee or pesto orchutneys or pickles that take largequantities of produce and herbs.They also eat a lot more fruits andvegetables and they’re a lot moreaccustomed to cooking fromscratch. Even college students fromother countries cook from scratch,believe it or not — it’s not allphoned-in pizza. And then thereare traditional banquets for holi-days and weddings and the like thattake LOTS of traditional veggies.

The tradition in their countries isshopping at open-air markets.They don’t want their produce allwrapped up in plastic.

Q: What’s most important inselling to ethnic groups?

Salts: You not only need to growthe crops the peoples are used to,but to cater to their cultures. Thesocial part is VERY important.You’re selling a service and experi-ence — not just veggies. It’s the ul-timate relationship marketing. Wetry to offer a social experience toour ethnic customers — greetingthem in their native languages, ask-ing their advice on ethnic cuisine,learning something of the geogra-phy and customs of their home-lands, etc. I try to find out whattheir holidays are and have specialitems in stock when their holidaysare coming.

Basically, just talk with them:“Are you from India? What part ofIndia?” They’re usually surprisedanyone is asking them such a ques-tion, but they might say, “AndhraPradesh.” And I say, “Hyderabad?”And they just about fall on theground: “Oh, you used to live inIndia?” Well no … but it all boilsdown to showing an interest intheir culture.

A supermarket COULD try tocompete with us on the productfront — but can you see them do-ing it better on the social front? Wehave such an advantage! Small mar-ket grower-marketers can stop grip-

ing about unfair competition fromfactory farms. We just have to con-nect with customers who want tobuy the “goods” in which we havea great comparative advantage. Andthose goods are not only greatproducts but service and relation-ships.

Q: Yuppies are getting to be adifficult market to sell to. Theypurchase small amounts, and theywant everything prepared. I’veheard that ethnic peoples are thefuture of farmers’ markets.

Salts: Well, we do sell to so-called yuppies also, and value theirpatronage, though it’s true thatthey rarely buy much quantity.They like exotic produce but usu-ally buy one of this and can yougive me just a pinch of that. Wefind that so-called ethnic custom-ers buy and use fresh veggies greatlyin excess of their percentage of thetotal farmers’ market customers —and patronize farmers’ marketsmore than do Anglo-Americans.Perhaps 50-60% of our currentfarmers’ market customers are eth-nic, and the proportion of ethnicsin the population is growing rap-idly. If present trends continue, theCensus Bureau projects that non-Hispanic European Americans willbe a minority by the year 2050,with the nation 25% Hispanic, 10-12% Asian-Pacific Islander and16% black.

Q: So your book gets into someof the basic ethnic languages afarmers’ market seller might learn?

Salts: Yes. I will have a glossaryin about 20 languages for elemen-tary farmers’ market terms such asgreetings, “yes,” “no,” numbers,etc. It doesn’t include all 2500 lan-guages of the world, but some ofthe basic ones like Arabic, Span-ish, Portuguese, Korean, Chineseand Vietnamese.

Q: Could you tell us a littleabout your own market mix?

Salts: Our marketing is approxi-mately 50-60% farmers’ markets,20-25% ethnic and vegetarian res-taurants, 15-20% CSA, 5-10% on-farm sales, booths at festivals, etc.Our product mix is perhaps 25-30% “standard” veggies (even Chi-nese like sweet corn); 25-35%“heirloom” old-fashioned varieties(tomatoes, sweet sorghum, wildblackberries, etc.), and 50% eth-nic veggies, mostly Oriental butwith generous and increasingdashes of Middle Eastern, Italian,East European, Asian Indian,Southeast Asian, Mexican, etc.

We try to offer both productsand services that the SuperMegamarkets and Fast Food Inter-national can’t. We offer very fresh,

carefully harvested, great-tasting,old-fashioned or ethnic produce,often with “weird” appearance orshort shelf lives, served up with agenerous side-dish of advice,multicultural socializing, and justplain old personal friendship.

Our heirloom veggies tend todraw a lot of vegetarians, gourmethobby cooks, older people (“Whymy grandma used to grow that inher garden! I haven’t seen that inyears!”), and curious passers-by(“What IS that!?”). Actually, heir-loom veggies could be consideredjust another sort of “ethnic” veggies— the veggies of our own fast-van-ishing traditional American cul-ture.

People are often loathe to buy“weird” veggies at first, so we giveaway a lot of free samples, plus reci-pes or suggestions for use. We arebuilding a steadily growing clien-tele of “addicts.” “Why you WEREright! That crazy fuzzy tomato / redokra / guinea bean / (or whatever!)tasted great! Can I get three poundsthis week?” ✿

Va

nce

Co

rum

Customers are 80% Asian and 10% Indian in Milpitas, CA.

© 2001 by New World Publishing. All rights reserved. May not be reprinted in any fashion except through written permission. Exerptedfrom The New Farmers’ Market, by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig and Eric Gibson. To order The New Farmers’ Market, call (888)281-5170 or contact New World Publishing, 11543 Quartz Dr. #1, Auburn CA 95602; (ph.) (530) 823-3886 , (fax) (810) 279-1959;[email protected]; www.nwpub.net.

Hot products: Fresh and Value-Added.

Over the past five years, Erichas had an unusual hobby,

asking dozens of growers or mar-ket managers: “What are the hot-test fresh products being sold inyour market?”

Fresh products“Tree- or vine-ripened is the rea-son people come to the mar-kets.”

“Fresh-from-the-farm, in-season,mainstay fruits and vegetables.”

“Whatever is in season! From rhu-barb in the spring to cauliflowerin the fall.”

“The strongest items consistentlyare ‘early’… sweet corn, cuc’s,zucchini, tomatoes, peppers andmelons.”

“Staples are still the big item here.Specialties are just starting toemerge. Our market tradition-ally serves older customers — it’sreally a ‘beans and ’taters’ audi-ence.”

Specialty items not found insupermarkets.“Anything unusual sells here.”

“We offer eight different variet-ies of cherries here, not just aBing!”

“Growing different varieties ofsweet and hot peppers is a greatniche, since they are an impor-tant ingredient in salsa, an ex-panding product line.”

Heirloom varieties“ ‘Old’ is ‘in.’ Old fashioned, heir-loom varieties of roses, for ex-ample, like your grandmothergrew. We have one grower whogrows over 80 varieties of roses,with their names all on labels. Wehave other rose growers in themarket, but there’s always peoplein line for hers. Most of the otherroses are bred for long stems andvisual appearance, not smell. Theold heirlooms look fantastic, andthey also smell great.”— Mark Sheridan, Mgr., Santa Barbara

FM, CA

“Some of the specialty organicheirloom varieties are showingup in the Austin and Dallas-FortWorth areas.”

“Some of the old apple varieties,like Winesap, Arkansas Black orNorthern Spy that you won’t findin the supermarkets.”

Salad mix“The mesclun craze just doesn’tseem to bottom out. The morefarmers are getting into it, themore customers, and each farmerseems to have a different mixwith each one tasting different.”

“One interesting variation onmesclun mixes is a farmer hereselling mixed bunches of veg-etables, rainbow mixes of rad-ishes or chiogga beets.”

“Due to the competition, we giveour mixes names and we offerdifferent ‘flavors’ with differentingredients.”

“My salad mix has large leaves in-stead of baby leaves and I can sellmy product for 50 percentcheaper. I found a niche ofpeople willing to pay $3 a poundfor salad mix instead of $6 apound.”

“We sell head lettuce with rootson (washed) as ‘live.’”

HerbsHerbs are a great farmers’ marketniche item, and also lend them-selves to great value-added itemslike herbal vinegars.

Ethnic “It’s a combination of more eth-nic buyers coming to the marketand other people liking the eth-nic foods.”

Organic items“There’s a trend toward organichere (New York) at the markets.People are still shopping prima-rily for price on the East Coast,though, and only a certain per-centage of people will pay extrafor organics.”

“The consumers are more edu-cated now. People are starting totake care of themselves a lot bet-ter and they’re searching for or-ganic.”

Fresh flowers“There’s a lot of competition inthe market for flowers. You haveto stay ahead of the competition.This means reading a lot offlower and gardening magazines

and being a member of the As-sociation of Specialty Cut FlowerGrowers.”

Also mentioned:Products for canning, vegetableseedlings, bedding plants, maplesyrup, nuts, baby vegetables andgreenhouse tomatoes.

“We sell compost, which we makefrom leaves and grass clippings(green waste) from the city ofBoulder, and sell it in 40-poundbags at the market to home gar-deners. Another good draw is ourtomato plants. We grow 20 dif-ferent varieties, which are pur-chased by home gardeners toplant themselves. With eachplant, we hand out an informa-tion sheet on how to grow toma-toes.”—John Ellis, Farmer John’s, Boulder,

CO

Value-added productsHere are some comments we heardabout value-added products atfarmers’ markets:

“Garlic sells for $1 a bunch, butsell it with dried herb flowers andtwo cayenne peppers and it sellsfor $10 a bunch!”

“Make your product attractive!Dress up your product by tyingit with ribbon, or bundling dif-ferent items together! If you areselling items in jars, cover the lidwith a small circle of fabric, etc.”

“Value-added is little more workout on the farm but gets pre-mium prices. A few years ago youcould bring sunflowers and sellthem, but now they have to beput in with other flowers in an

arrangement. You can’t just bringthings, put them on the table andexpect them to sell. It takes a bet-ter job of presentation.”

“The market for dehydrated veg-etables is really taking off! The‘country kitchen’ look is really in.The key is to use down-home,pretty packaging.”

“Items for fast preparation. Peopleare uneducated in cooking andin prepping food or produce.”

“Value-added takes us away fromthe concept of fresh and direct!We have to differentiate as muchas possible from grocery stores.”

Here are some of the manyvalue-added items growers are sell-ing in farmers’ markets:

≤ Baby food (organic)

≤ Bakery items, including bread,cookies, scones, fruit cobblers,apple dumplings, fruit pies

≤ Baskets, including fruit baskets

≤ Canned items, including roastedgarlic, vegetables

≤ Corn shocks

≤ Crafts

≤ Dog biscuits (vegetarian)

≤ Dried fruit, including exoticdried fruit like dried persim-mons, fruit squares

≤ Dried vegetables, including to-matoes

≤ Flowers, including cut flower ar-rangements, dried flowers

≤ Garlic braids

≤ Gourds

≤ Greenhouse items

≤ Herbal products, includingbraids, crafts, lotions, balms,soaps, oils, teas, bath herbs, dried

herbs, lip gloss, salve, massageoils

≤ Hickory chips

≤ Honey, including flavored

≤ Jams, jellies and preserves, in-cluding low- or no-sugar, cactusapple, fig jam jelly, pomegran-ate jelly, rhubarb preserves

≤ Juices, including fresh, exoticjuices like pomegranate

≤ Lettuce, mixed 6-pack as veggiestarts

≤ Marinated fruits and vegetablesand syrups (wild cherry)

≤ Molasses

≤ Nursery stock

≤ Nuts, salted and flavored

≤ Oil, including jojoba, olive, or-ganic

≤ Pastas

≤ Pepper braids

≤ Pesto, all kinds

≤ Pickled vegetables

≤ Popcorn

≤ Posole (corn soaked in lime anddried) from colored corn

≤ Potpourri

≤ Prepared foods, including bagels,pizza relish, onion rhubarb salsa,including tomato, salsa verdemix with tomatilloes, onion, gar-lic, chilies, cilantro

≤ Soaps, generally handmade

≤ Spices

≤ “Squirrel corn” (field corn put inpackages with a feeder stand)

≤ Vinegar, including gourmet,with fancy labeling and specialingredients like meyer lemons,habanero peppers, berries or ed-ible flowers. ✿


Offer something special.The key to getting higher-than-supermarket prices isto offer something special — such as freshness, higherquality or uniqueness in variety — that customerscan't buy in the supermarket, then communicate thisquality difference to your customers!

Stress quality and uniqueness.Perhaps your sweet corn is raised with-out chemicals or spray, for example, oryou grow unique varieties like "Won-derful," "Sweet Sue" or "Gold Cup."The fact that people are coming to thefarmers' markets means that they'relooking for a reason not to go to thesupermarket, so give it to them!"Best ideas for getting top prices at the market? Signson tables that say 'FARM FRESH' or 'PICKEDLAST NIGHT' Folks are usually willing to pay alittle more for fresh."

— Diane Green, Greentree Naturals Farm, Sandpoint,ID

"You just can't get cheaper than the supermarkets.You can't compete on prices, so consumer trustbecomes all important. Consumers are looking forfewer pesticides, for example. It's expensive to getcertified organic in New York, so the growers bringphotos to market to show customers their growingmethods."

— Jane Desotelle, Mgr., Adirondack FM Co-op, NY

Guarantee satisfaction.Guarantee that your crop is better than what custom-ers will find in the supermarket: "I guarantee eachmelon I sell, and if you don't like it, you can bring itback!"

As Ronald Smolowitz, Coonamessett Farm, EastFalmouth, MA, says: "If products are not top quality,toss it; take only your best to the market. I give mycustomers my best quality products, and those cus-

tomers are there no matter what my prices are, andthey bring their friends and relatives. They tell me: 'Iknow your berries are really good; I don't find anymold in them. So I keep buying from you even thoughI know your prices are higher.'"

Use small-unit pricing.For expensive specialty items, price in smallunits. Instead of $5 a pound, make it $3 ahalf-pound or even $2 a quarter pound!Smaller-unit pricing makes it easier for thecustomer to buy and try out a new or expen-sive product. Similarly, try selling expensiveitems like strawberries, blueberries and rasp-berries by the pint rather than the quart. Snow

peas, for example, may be as high as $4 per pound.This will make customers reluctant to buy. It is betterto offer such items in more manageable units, such asa quarter pound for $1. Customers will pay more fortwo individual pints than they will for one quart.

The strawberries Smolowitz sells at the marketsare prepackaged in pints, not quarts, and raspberrieslikewise come in a one-half pint size rather than pints."People tend to buy in smaller quantities," Smolowitzsays. "We get a lot of retired couples or single house-holds and people don't can as much as they used to."

When an item isn't selling well in bulk, repack-age it into quart boxes. Visually, a quart box lookslike a lot. Little tomatoes amidst a bunch of big to-matoes won't sell, but little tomatoes in a quart boxsell well.

Sell smaller packages for more.Diane Green, Greentree Naturals Farm, in Sandpoint,Idaho, explains this strategy: "If I ask $2.50 for a pintof raspberries, people think I'm nuts and refuse tobuy at that price when they can buy them for a $1.00at the next stand. I package them in 1/2 pint con-tainers, and sell them for $1.25 and sell out EVERYTIME. I have no idea why a smaller package for more

Getting Top Dollar For What You Sell at Farmers’ Markets

money will sell better, but it works!"Price hard-to-find items above the market. Do this

for unusual products or where competition is less in-tense, especially where there are quality differences.Even when yields are great, maintain your price. Youwill not stimulate additional purchases with a lowerprice. People will only buy what they need.

Give samples.Let customers taste your quality! Cut slices:"Here, try one!" Especially with a new orunusual product, give out educational lit-erature or recipes to show how to use it.

"Showcase" your product with greatmerchandising.Why do you think expensive jewelry isback-dropped by velvet or other fancy fabric? Makedynamic displays using attractive packaging. Marketmanager Dana Plummer of the Downtown WaterlooFarmers' Market in Iowa says, "Consumers will paytwice as much if they're at a good-looking stall that'spleasing to the eye, where samples are provided, andwhere the vendors are customer-friendly."

Provide service.This is what customers don't get in the supermarketsor "big box" stores. Be friendly with customers; askyour market to provide carry-out service for largepurchases or for seniors; provide nutrition informa-tion and storage tips; and suggest ways to use the prod-uct (recipes, etc.) to increase demand.

Maintain your base pricing.

Try not to lower your prices even when your com-petitors are dropping theirs. If competing farmers dropprices, keep your original price even late in season,

but give something extra. As one grower said: "If spe-cial sales and lower prices are appropriate due to over-abundance of supply or promotional activities, we findthat retaining the base price and then adding extravalue is much better than simply getting a lower price.For example, when corn is over-supplied and otherfarmers are down around $2.75 per dozen, we keep

our base price of 35¢ an ear, 6 ears for $2.00,and $3.75 per dozen. To attract the cus-tomer we offer 6 for $2.00 and then get a7th ear free, or buy a dozen at $3.75 andget 2 ears free. We find people often buy adozen at $3.75 to get two free. We get 27¢per ear and keep our base price for futuremarketing. Our competition gets 23¢ an earand will have difficulty raising the price in

the future should the corn supply change. Again,quality is critical."

Raising prices.Finally, if and when you do make upward price ad-justments, make them as little as needed rather thanall at once.

Excerpted with permission from “The New FarmersMarket: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers& Communities,” by Vance Corum, MarcieRosenzweig, and Eric Gibson. To order, send $24.95+ $4.50 shipping to: “QP Distribution,” 22260 “C”St.,Winfield, KS 67156. Credit card orders call 888-281-5170. California residents add $1.75 tax. 8 X10, 272 pps.

It’s great to educate your commu-nity about farmers’ markets and

local agriculture, but how do youfund the programs to do this? Oneanswer is through grants. To fi-nance the ambitious and far-reach-ing educational projects of theFriends of the Farmers’ Markets,executive director Pam Roy spendsan appreciable amount of timewriting grant proposals, develop-ing business sponsorships, andspearheading an annual fund-rais-ing campaign. FFM is set up as anonprofit 501(c)(3) and acts as anumbrella for several organizationsto help fund and develop their edu-cational outreach programs.

“You really need to research whoyou are applying to, what theywant, and what their purposes are,”Roy says. To find out who’s givinggrants, go to a library and look fora CD-ROM from the NationalFoundation Center; this listing isalso available on their website atfdncenter.org. “On their websiteyou can find all kinds of informa-tion about foundations that may beinterested in your organization’smission and programs,” Roy says.On both the CD and the websiteyou can do searches under specific

Researching & Getting Grants

key words such as “sustainable ag-riculture,” “organic,” “local agricul-ture” or “farmers’ markets.” Try tolet your initial search be as broadas possible. Then you might nar-row your search by state or by morespecific categories.

Also consider what the founda-tions’ major interests are. Some-times you may think they are notinterested in your proposedprojects when in fact they may be,and sometimes the opposite maybe true. “Simply calling them willlet you know for sure,” Roy says.Usually their phone numbers ande-mail addresses are listed as wellas their mailing addresses. Oftenthe listings will give informationabout what kinds of projects theyhave funded in the last year and ofcourse this is a good tip-off abouttheir interests and potential forfunding your project.

Did they fund large projects orsmall, locally oriented agriculturalprojects? How much have theygiven in the past and how muchdo they now have available to give?Be realistic about their potential tofund your project. Look at howmuch money they gave last year.Often they will list both the total

and a minimum and maximumrange of money per project. Alsotake a look at which regions theytarget. They may only donate to acity or state that doesn’t includeyour area, so don’t waste your timeapplying where there’s no possibil-ity.

Take a look at who their execu-tive directors are and consider ifyou know anyone in that commu-nity. Check with them to see if youknow any of the board members.“This research often takes a lot oftime and can be grueling,” Roysays. “In order to maximize yourefforts, you need to be realistic notonly about who to go to, but inhow much you can do as an indi-vidual or an organization.”

Local community foundationsoften provide either workshops orservices on how to write grant pro-posals — look under “Founda-tions” in the yellow pages. OftenCity Hall will have directories oflocal nonprofit community foun-dations and services. Communitycolleges, farm conferences and Co-operative Extension often havecourses or workshops on how towrite grant proposals. ✿

© 2001 by New World Publishing. All rights reserved. May not be reprinted in any fashion except through written permission.Exerpted from The New Farmers’ Market, by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig and Eric Gibson. To order The New Farmers’Market, call (888) 281-5170 or contact New World Publishing, 11543 Quartz Dr. #1, Auburn CA 95602; (ph.) (530) 823-3886 , (fax) (810) 279-1959; www.nwpub.net.

The Dane County Farmers’Market (DCFM) is the larg-

est farmers’ market in the U.S. withover 300 vendors stretching allaround the two-block, state capi-tol square in Madison, Wisconsin.About 25,000 people come to themarket each Saturday in a city of200,000, and recently-retired mar-ket manager Mary Carpenter at-tributes the market’s phenomenalattendance to several factors. Itscustomer base is “middle class toaffluent,” and the market is closeto the University of Wisconsin atMadison, one of the largest univer-sities in the country. “It’s a veryhealth conscious city,” Carpentersays. “The university was one of themost radical campuses in cities inthe 60s, and I think the market hasbloomed into a great farmers’ mar-ket.”

Another factor in the market’ssuccess is that its customers includea wide variety of ethnic groups. Forexample, about 10% of the mar-ket vendors at the market areHmong. Carpenter says she feelsthe market’s vendor base shouldreflect people who are growing andproducing crops and reflect localagriculture.

There is a two-year waiting listfor qualified persons wishing tojoin the market. After about tenyears as “daily vendors” members

may graduate to “season stall” sta-tus which allows them to have thesame assigned spot each week.Only about 40% of vendors have“season stalls”; thus, more than halfthe vendors must arrive by 6 a.m.to line up by seniority. At 6:30these “daily vendors” drive onto thesquare in an orderly manner andclaim any open space, includingany “season stalls” vacant that day.“We have 20 to 30 new vendorscoming in each year from the wait-ing list,” Carpenter adds. “Theyhelp bring fresh ideas to the mar-ket.”

The DCFM is strictly foods,flowers and fibers; no crafts are al-lowed at the market. Even flowerscan be sold only as flowers, notwith bows or ribbons. “Variety iswhat brings customers to the mar-ket,” Carpenter says. “One vendorbrings 200 different kinds ofherbs.”

The market is run on a free-market basis, rather than having alot of rules and regulations aboutproduct quality. Carpenter feelsmarket competition encouragesand even demands that growersbring their best, what customerswant. “You don’t get away withbringing seconds or poor producebecause so many growers have greatproduce at the market.”

One market rule that is enforcedfirmly is the strict “farmer-grown”policy. Resellers are strictly forbid-den at the market; everything soldhas to be raised by the vendor, andthey can be booted out of the mar-ket for violations. Each vendor isrequired to sign a contract that al-lows the market to do a drop-ininspection at any time, for any rea-son. If the vendor refuses to allowan inspection, they are automati-cally expelled. “If a person is sell-ing eggplant and they don’t showme the eggplant in the field, they’reout,” Carpenter says. “It has beenyears, however, since a grower re-fused an on-farm inspection. Infact, they are always very proud ofwhat they grow and are anxious toshow off their operations. We’vehad only one or two expulsions ayear of people reselling product.”

When asked if such a strict tofarmer-grown policy could work ina small-town, start-up marketwhere some managers claim theneed to relax the farmer-grownrules in order to diversify the mar-ket, Carpenter has an interestinganswer: “Personally I wouldn’tmanage any other type of market.We started with 11 vendors. Theywould get demands and they woulddo whatever it took to grow it.They could not depend on bring-

How One Manager Makes Issues Look Easy:The Dane County Farmers’ Market Story

ing it in from somewhere else. Andthe market just grew naturally.”

The DCFM has developed aunique solution to the “big vs.small farmer” issue when smallgrowers feel outgunned by biggrowers renting multiple boothspaces. Each vendor is given a 16-foot maximum frontage, which lev-els the playing field. “It also en-courages vendors to be very creativein their marketing,” Carpentersays. “We don’t want someone’sbank account dictating how muchspace they have — 16 feet is theabsolute limit.”

Another factor that contributesto the market success, Carpenter

feels, is that the organization has aboard of entirely vendor members.“We’re an independent, self-gov-erning, nonprofit organization.When it’s a self-governing body,you listen to people. We’re dealingwith our own problems and wedon’t have to explain them topeople who don’t understand whatwe’re doing. The board is very in-dependent and responsive to ven-dor needs, and active people tendto attend board meetings.”

Bounty from bounty, the mar-ket supplies 11 food banks everySaturday. “At 11:30 a.m. the foodbank people come by with carts,

and a lot of growers say ‘take thetable’ and some even bring someextra for that purpose,” Carpen-ter says. In addition, every fall alarge charity dinner is held to sup-port the food bank. The marketdonates the raw goods, top Madi-son chefs cook the food, foodbank volunteers serve, and all theproceeds from a $14 dinner go tothe food banks.

Does Carpenter have any man-agement tips to pass along? “Onlythat you deal with things with asense of humor,” Carpenterlaughs. “And it doesn’t hurt that Iwas a teacher.” ✿


The Farmers’ Market Salad Bar Program

“We never thought we would see the day when kidsare clamoring for kohlrabi or daikon, but after they’vetasted it at the salad bar programs, they want moreand more,” says Laura Avery, manager of the SantaMonica Farmers’ Market. She is referring to a newprogram whereby local farmers’ markets supply farm-fresh fruits and vegetables to school cafeterias. At dis-trict schools children are offered a fresh farmers’ mar-ket salad bar as an alternative to the traditional hotlunch five days a week. “I can tell you,” one sixthgrader exclaimed, “that we are very happy!”

The farmers’ market salad bar program is run bythe Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District(SMMUSD) Food and Nutrition Services Depart-ment and the City of Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.Many of the children affected are from low-incomefamilies where access to fresh produce may be lim-ited. The school district has seen more than a 500%increase in kids selecting the salad bar choice oncethe district began buying fresh fruits and vegetablesat the farmers’ market rather than through local pro-duce dealers. The program has evolved from a pilotprogram in one elementary school to a district-widesuccess story being implemented in all 14 schools,thanks to a strong lunchtime demand from studentsfor fresh fruit and vegetables.

In 1997, Occidental College researchers launcheda pilot program to encourage students to eat morefresh produce while simultaneously supporting localfarmers. The high-fat, high-salt food school age chil-dren often eat have created a paradox: many childrenare overweight and/or undernourished and schoolfood is often the only daily meal available to them. Inthe past, school food menus may not have empha-sized sound nutrition. Food insecurity is a conditionthat far too many low-income children confront daily,both inside and outside the schools.

The salad bar is a particularly compelling idea,given indications that nutritional deficiencies mayhave a significant impact on learning capacity. School

food services often have become a political footballbetween shrinking budgets, a reliance on low quality,commodity-based food, and the new shift towardprivatized food services, which often emphasize fast-food type items.

According to Avery, “Kids pile their plates highwith bright crunchy, juicy produce and often returnfor a second plateful. Nutritionally, the salad bar ex-ceeds the USDA minimum requirements.”

Rodney Taylor, SMMUSD food services director,says, “Serving nutritious meals that are also appeal-ing to students encourages them to make healthychoices at an early age. Observing these good nutri-tional habits can help prevent a lifetime of serioushealth problems including obesity, diabetes, heartdisease and cancer.”

The items for the salad bar consist of what’s inseason, with many of the items picked the previousday. A typical week’s menu will include two differentkinds of fruit daily as well as four to six different kindsof vegetables. Since the program purchases directlyfrom local farmers, items vary by season. There is aneducational benefit as students become aware thatcertain foods only grow in the region during particu-lar seasons. Students also learn about growing issuesin a school garden and through farmers’ market tours.

Taylor believes the salad bar program has paid foritself thus far. It costs the district just pennies per serv-ing as compared to the hot lunch. The district’s foodbudget pays for the market produce, but volunteersor others funded by federal grants bring the producedaily to the students at the salad bar.

Because of good volume, growers give bulk dis-counts. “We’re supplying the district with organicstrawberries at $8 a flat which might sell at the mar-ket for $12 a flat. It’s a guaranteed volume and at aprice the farmers are comfortable with,” says Avery.

The Santa Monica School District spent $23,400on the salad bar program in the 1999-2000 schoolyear. One of the 20 farmers sold $4,260 worth ofproduce to the district, a new customer that had nevershopped at the farmers’ market. Sales are beneficialto the farmers even at or below wholesale price be-

cause they don’t make an extra stop, don’thave to make a hard sell and it’s a standingorder each week. “The farmers also enjoyknowing that they are nourishing and edu-cating a new generation of consumers,” Averyadds. “They figure that kids that start outeating good food will continue to eat goodfood.”

How do you start a salad bar program?The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market was for-tunate to have several supportive people toget it started: the director of Food and Nu-trition Services for the district, the marketmanager, and SMMUSD food nutrition co-ordinator Tracie Thomas, who pulled it all together.

“The food services director for your school dis-trict is the first person to approach,” Avery says. “Inour case the director happened to have a son in theschools whom he was anxious to get on this program.”Another requirement is access to a large volume andgood variety of fresh produce — it takes a lot of pro-duce to supply a salad bar daily for a school district.

With the help of grant funds, the market alsosponsors a Chef in the Classroom program to partnerwith teachers interested in incorporating nutritioninto their curriculums, even in elementary school.

USDA grant. Having helped to demonstrate thefeasibility of the concept, Occidental College is nowheading a national consortium of universities, schooldistricts and non-profit groups to develop new “farm-to-school” programs in California, New Jersey, andNew York and expanding nationally.

Funded by a $2 million grant from the federalagriculture department, the farm-to-school project isan innovative effort to improve children’s health andgive small and medium-sized farms access to part ofthe $16 billion school food services market. “Thiswill enable us to provide the kind of outreach andtraining needed to help others create and institution-alize their own programs across the country,” saidRobert Gottlieb, director of Occidental’s Urban andEnvironmental Policy Institute (UEPI).

“We can envision farm-fresh food and gardensintegrated into literally every school district in thecountry,” added project co-director MichelleMascarenhas. By expanding the market for local farmproduce, farm-to-school programs can create a majornew sales opportunity for family farmers as well asprovide healthier food for school lunches and an ef-fective means of educating children about nutrition,said Gottlieb.

For more information, see Occidental College’sPollution Prevention Education Research Trainingwebsite at:

h t tp : / /www.oxy. edu/oxy/ne ws/a r t i c l e s /farms.and.schools.html.[See also Resources, Chapter 12] Similar salad bar programs have been operating

in Berkeley and Santa Barbara schools. The Santa Bar-bara Farmers’ Market approached a local school toestablish a garden, applied for a grant, and the kidsnow grow food and come to the market. They alsosell to the cafeteria which meets the rest of their needsat the market.

Kids notice fresh. This wave of the future mayonly be limited by the variety of products availablelocally. When highlighting the 5-A-Day program orsimply hosting a school tour, notify farmers to haveat least one item “on special” for kids. An apple or

The Santa Monica school district has seen more than a 500% increase in kidsselecting the salad bar choice once the district began buying fresh fruits and veg-etables at the farmers' market rather than through local produce dealers.

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Asian pear for a quarter starts the habit and gets anidea home. Fullerton, CA, has hosted children’s tourswhere everyone receives 50 cents of coupons to re-deem with farmers. Make sure they go home with abrochure. Work with the school nutritionist to in-corporate farmers’ market items and education intotheir program.

Kids love to leave their mark through a mural or tile project whichcan be incorporated into a market building or nearby wall.

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Many of us would like to im-prove the school lunch pro-

gram, but I believe it has to be donethrough educating the kids in theclassroom first. If you are con-cerned about the quality of foodserved in schools, you need to geta group of people together who arealso interested in this issue. Makesure there is public support. Lookfor parents, farmers and farmers’market people who are interestedin the school lunch programs andhaving healthier and more nutri-tious foods for their children. Geta core group of people together andcome up with a proposal.

Your proposal needs to be care-fully thought out and well orga-nized. Schools are stretched to themax. You need to offer a programthat you can provide initially. If theschool perceives the project as morework or another program that theyhave to incorporate, they will re-ject it. There should also be no ex-pense involved for the school.Once the school has seen the valueof the program they may be will-ing to buy into it.

Your proposed program shouldaddress both education and healthissues related to fresh foods. Thenutritional advantages of freshfoods should be emphasized alongwith introducing foods that areavailable at the farmers’ market andteaching the students about thecultures of the countries wherethese foods are indigenous.

A school education programabout fresh foods is a natural forfarmers’ market programs becausefarmers’ market products are somuch healthier than what the kidsare being fed in the schools. If morepeople saw the quality of foodsserved to children in many of theschools in this country, they wouldperhaps mobilize into action.

When children are enthusiasticabout eating more nutritious food,the school lunch program will havea reason to change. Kids will eathealthy foods when they knowwhat they are through positive, sen-sory-based education. If you putfood from the garden in front ofchildren without educating themabout what it is, it’s unlikely thatthey will want to eat it. If you tellthem: “If you eat this, then 20 yearsfrom now you might not get can-cer,” it’s not a compelling argumentfor children.

Food education should be anenjoyable experience for the kids,where they also learn about math,science, and the cultures of theworld. If possible, bring in food-related artifacts along with musicfrom various cultures to allow thechildren to have a rich exposure todifferent cultures. Have the chil-dren keep a journal of what they’velearned so they can record theirfood-based experiences.

Use food as a vehicle to teachthe academic disciplines. Let thekids cook the food and then eat it.

They will be so proud of whatthey’ve created and that they’ve cre-ated something beautiful. If thatsame food is then served in the caf-eteria, because the children havehad such a positive experience withthat food, they will be eager to eatit. Children will eat up to 20 timesas much of a new food item if theyhave had prior positive exposure tothe new food.

Some adults in food educationprograms have tried cooking foodin front of the kids and expectedthe children would eat it. This gen-erally is not effective. The childrenneed to do the cooking and havethe direct experience themselves.

School food education pro-grams should focus on getting kidsexcited about cooking and eatingfruits, vegetables and grains. Schoolmeals are often a child’s best mealor the only meal they will eat thatday. We must educate our childrenabout nutrition so that they canprotect their health through diet asthey grow. We have a moral obli-gation to see that this happens.

— Contact info: Antonia Demas,Ph.D., Director, Food Studies In-stitute, 60 Cayuga St. Trumans-burg, NY 14886 (607)387-6884,[email protected].[See Resources, Chapter 12 toorder Dr. Demas’ book, Food isElementary] ✿

Launching a Fresh Foods School Education ProgramAn Interview with Dr. Antonia Demas, author of “Food is Elementary”


— Lynn Bagley is founder of theMarin County Farmers’ Market,director of the Golden Gate Farm-ers’ Market Association and a con-sultant with Bagley & Associates,Novato, CA

Events can hurt sales if theydraw people who are not com-

ing to buy. Events should promotethe farmers’ market concept whichis to re-establish communicationsbetween rural and urban culture.Lots of people are looking for theirrural roots again. We celebrate theseasons, for example, and in gro-cery stores there is no season.

Keep the focus on food! Thepurpose of special events is to pro-mote the market. You want the at-tendees to come back, so beforehaving special events, make sureyour producers are providing high-quality products and services tobuild customer loyalty and bond-ing. Help keep customers comingback with constant new excite-ment, educational, food-relatedevents and thematic entertainment,but don’t get too far from “who youare” such that special events detractfrom food sales. Events that havenothing to do with food or agri-culture may promote sales for thatone day, but in the long run they

attract a different customer baseand hurt sales.

When you have a glut of onething (cherries, peaches, etc.) havea tasting! This turns a not-so-good-situation into a better situation.With each tasting event that youdo, emphasize the quality and va-riety of produce to be found at themarket. Studies show this is whatdraws the people to the farmers’markets. Whatever products youhave that the supermarkets don’thave, e.g., heirloom varieties ofapples, a tasting helps show themoff and highlights your competitiveedge over the supermarkets.

In April or May flower-gluttime, bring in the nurseries to talkabout flower care, the local waterdistrict to talk about water-savingtechniques, or chefs to do a demoon cooking with flowers.

Plan special events around whatyour target customer may want.Synergy begins to build and ex-pands with diversity. With seniors,for example, you can do a “SeniorHealth Fair,” including a range ofsenior health services and nutritioncounseling. Involve local busi-nesses; get employees out at lunch-time by serving some speciallunches. Each person you hook

may tell 10 people.You want your market to serve

as many different types of thepopulation as possible. Target spe-cial events to attract populationsegments, e.g. certain ethnic groupsor a wealthy clientele. If your de-mographics allow it, go after the“green consumer,” and you’ll havea repeat customer. At the marketsthey can find foods grown withoutpesticides and a chance to helpfarmers preserve farmland and thegreenbelt around the city. Greenconsumers tend to be very loyal andoften have more money and tendto better educated — they are a“natural” for the farmers’ markets.

One way to attract the the“green consumer” is with EarthDay and organic events. Help cel-ebrate Earth Day with a festival andalso have a year-round sign describ-ing how farmers’ markets are eco-logical and thus a celebration ofevery day as earth day. An OrganicTasting Event allows you to edu-cate people on what is “No Spray,”what is “transitional,” what is ac-tually organic, and to show peoplehow good organic products reallyare.

Special Events at Your Marketby Lynn Bagley

Another way to plan great spe-cial events at your markets is tolook for businesses or communitygroups you can network with. Lookat a Calendar of Events in the news-paper for upcoming events and callthe organizations to see if they’dlike to come to the market to pro-mote their organization. Read thepaper and look for food, garden oragriculture-related events or expertsto find people who may contrib-ute to the market. You might findsomeone who can provide a gar-dening or cooking demo or eventeach a series of classes at the mar-ket.

Take advantage of the schools.They love coming out to the mar-kets for Farm Day. Invite teachersand classes, and invite schoolboards to participate in planning.Invite the Farm Bureau and Coop-erative Extension. Have a muralcontest, an essay contest, a photocontest. Have a live story: “Wheredoes lunch come from?”

Prepare a teacher packet that

explains where food comes fromand talks about the diversity offruits and vegetables, etc. Have ag-riculture exhibits about food,where clothes come from, a recy-cling center, and Peter Rabbit’s gar-den. When we get children think-ing about where their food comesfrom, we create our future.

In conjunction with the MarinCommunity Food Bank aroundValentine’s Day, for example, theMarin County Farmers’ Marketheld a “Have a Heart Day.” A bigred heart with lace around it wasplaced on a table, suggesting thatpeople buy food at the market anddonate for the Food Bank. To pro-mote heart-healthy fruits and veg-etables, market volunteers put littlehearts on all the fruits and veg-etables that are beneficial for theheart. A xeroxed list was passed outof “Heart Healthy Fruits and Veg-etables.”

Start out small and simple withspecial events, and build on it moreand more. Don’t plan so many

events at once that you can’t dothem right. Don’t try to do it allyourself. Have a special event co-ordinator and develop volunteers,partnerships and collaborators tohelp. Don’t call it a special eventunless you’re really doing some-thing special.

Don’t do the same “specialevents” over and over. Build onthem! Build fund-raisers in con-junction with special events to pro-mote the market in general. In thebeginning when you have little orno money to spend on advertising,spend money on special events in-stead of large paid ads and promotethese with press releases, PSAs,signs at the markets, etc.

Plan for getting maximum cov-erage from media. Get last year’sphotos to print prior to the eventand shoot new photos to send thenewspapers for printing after theevent as well. Send out press pack-ets early and repeat releases twoweeks before the event. ✿


EDUCATING THE PUBLICABOUT LOCALAGRICULTURE ANDFARMERS’ MARKETS

Friends of the Farmers’ Markets – Santa Fe

New Mexico has a fascinating state model Friends ofthe Farmers’ Markets (FFM) program, directed byPamela Roy in Santa Fe. Its purposes are to solicitbroader recognition of the state’s farmers’ markets,foster increased support among consumers and insti-tutions for sustainably grown agricultural products,enhance marketing opportunities for the farmers, andencourage family farming and the preservation of in-digenous agricultural traditions.

Friends of the Farmers’ Markets seeks to achievethese goals through on-farm research, workshops andconferences, and “Farm Connection.” This bimonthlynewsletter uses both contributed articles and farmer-to-farmer dialogue to cover national and regionalpolicy issues, direct farm marketing and local sustain-able topics.

FFM also provides conference scholarships forfarmers, sponsors farm improvement clubs to give seedmoney for farmer group projects, and funds farmers’market projects like customer surveys and farmer edu-cation workshops.

Roy says, “Farmers need to think about their farm-ers’ market venture as a business. Especially as mar-kets grow and there’s more a competitive environment,farmers need to learn business skills like writing abusiness plan and utilizing long-range cash-flow plan-ning instead of operating out-of-pocket from day today.” Teachers from local Small Business DevelopmentCenters or other nonprofit organizations are perfectfor Friends workshops.

FFM also educates the community, especially chil-dren, through programs such as: a Farm Tour through-out northern New Mexico; hands-on activities in theFarmers’ Market Garden; Shop with the Chefs andfood demonstrations; festivals such as Stone Soup andCorn Grinding & Tortilla-Making Day; as well asTaste, Touch and Smell days.

Kids’ Education. The “Farm to School” fall pro-gram reaches 2000 students at 20 Santa Fe publicgrade schools, fairly extensive outreach in a town of60,000. “The kids come to the farmers’ market andparticipate in our programs; the teachers’ love it,” Roysays. “It makes such a great field trip, and one of thethings that we are aiming at in our grant proposals isto institutionalize the farmers’ market in the schoolsystem through our Farm to School Program.”

The FFM helps teachers enrich their curriculumon food topics by offering presentations in the schoolsprior to the market tours. Farmers are provided sti-pends to give the presentations and host field trips ontheir farms. The program thus offers introductorypresentations about the farmers’ market, visits to themarket and on-site education, farmer visits to the class-room and farm field trips.

The “Kids in the Garden” program involveshands-on activities in a small community garden,about 70-yards long by 8-feet wide, at the farmers’market. “Kids of all ages” are invited to: “Come digthe soil, plant seeds, identify common garden plants,construct trellises, harvest the bounty and taste thefresh tomatoes.”

“We use the garden as an alive, hands-on experi-ence,” Roy says. On Seed Planting Day, kids plant inthe garden. When they come back to the farmers’market week after week, they can actually see and tendtheir plants. They also take home six-packs of plantedseeds to cultivate at home.

Compost Critters Day allows kids to use micro-scopes and eyeglasses to inspect all the beneficial in-sects in the garden. They also prepare soil and makecompost.

Farm Tours. In 1999 there were 600 people fromNew Mexico and out-of-state who visited 20 partici-pating farms. “The farm tour is a great opportunityfor experiential learning,” Roy says. “People learn howthe food is grown and how to connect with their lo-cal farmer.” They saw wool spinning, compost mak-ing, and bread making by a local bakery. The bakeryhanded out their brochures about encouraging therevitalization of local wheat production in New

Va

nce

Co

rum

A farmer becomes one with her dried flower arrangements which willmake perfect gifts or home accents, paying for those long hours ofdesign work by the fireplace. Some growers offer classes on arrang-ing to spur flower sales.

Mexico. The demonstrations were all done at farms;similar exhibitions are done at farmers’ markets.

Taste Festivals. “Fresh tastings enable you to ex-pand your palate by sampling the many varieties ofsuper-fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs available atthe market,” Roy says. “You get to know those small,sweet, yellow tomatoes perfect for salads, kids or salsa;which roasted chili variety has just the right amountof heat for you; and whose sweet apricots and peachesyou will stuff yourself on this summer!”

Taste, Touch and Smell days are seasonal eventsto celebrate locally grown, regional specialties. Thereare at least 40 varieties of tomatoes at the market, soa tomato tasting is a natural. Similarly, at the ChileFestival market visitors can sample 20 to 30 varietiesof chili and sweet peppers, roasted and raw. With theApple Tasting they can sample a dozen or more vari-eties and pick up literature that describes which applesare tart and sweet, which are good for apple pie, andwhich make a better applesauce. Sometimes farmersare paid for their produce or flour from grant fundswhile others make contributions.

Stone Soup Day revolves around a sweet children’sfable. A pauper arrived in a community and wentdoor-to-door asking for food. Unsuccessful, he de-cided to ask people for help in making a communitystone soup. He asked each household if they couldcontribute some carrots or some tomatoes and eachone was willing. The soup project snowballed. Justby saying “I have a stone” and “I’m contributing,” hegot the community to contribute to a pot of soup. Atthe market the fable is told and kids learn to makesoup, starting with a vegetable broth base. Adults loveit, too.

On the same day they teach corn grinding andtortilla making. Market corn growers contribute cobsof corn. Kids shuck and grind it and make tortillas, agreat source of pride, from the cob right to the torti-lla.

“We want people to be conscious about wherethey buy their food and why, and we want people toknow that they have options,” Roy says, explainingFFM’s considerable efforts in educating the public

about local agriculture. “This is important becausethe young people growing up now are at least one ifnot two generations removed from family farms. Theyno longer have a grandparent or an uncle or aunt whooperate a farm. So a lot of these kids, along with manyadults, really don’t know much about farm life andthey have no idea where their food comes from.

“We recognize that convenience is one of the num-ber-one things people are looking for now in the 21stcentury — consumers lead very busy, active lives, sowe’re recognizing that farmers’ markets need to makesome transition to a certain extent.

“Yet we feel we’re also here to help people makedecisions about their food, learn where their foodcomes from, how it can be prepared, how they can beinvolved in their local food system if they want to be,and that they can make a conscious choice. That su-permarket tomato may not be the only tomato in town— the local grocer or farmers’ market may provide atomato that is grown locally in the community, andby buying that instead of the supermarket variety,they’re supporting the local economy.

“That’s why we feel the educational aspect of thefarmers’ markets is so important. I always expect thatpeople look for the higher good, but I’m also realisticin recognizing that our world provides us with somuch information overload that sometimes people

have to make the simplest choices for themselves. Ifwe can touch even ten percent of the community, wefeel we are making an impact.”

Shop with the Chef. This program especially high-lights local, indigenous foods such as chili, squash,corn posole and frijoles (beans) and also focuses onseasonal varieties of fruits and vegetables. “There’s alot of local indigenous foods around here that cus-tomers might see at the market, but they don’t knowhow to use,” Roy says. “These are culturally tradi-tional or ethnic foods that customers ordinarilywouldn’t see in other parts of the country.”

“The chef will talk about the goat cheese or rhu-barb that she’s using in a demonstration, and why it’simportant to buy seasonally — why you don’t seeoranges or bananas in the farmers’ market in SantaFe, for example, and why you’ll find greens and peasearly in the year in the market and not apples,” saysRoy.

Ferry Plaza — San Francisco

Sibella Kraus, who founded the Tasting of SummerProduce in the early 1980s, created a non-profit Cen-ter for Urban Education About Sustainable Agricul-ture (CUESA) to run the market, a favorite site forpremier organic growers and specialty food produc-ers. Now Frankie Whitman acts as the consultant,developing innovative, educational programs at themarket.

Ferry Plaza does a “Shop with the Chef Program”in which a local chef is given a budget to shop themarket for what’s fresh that day. Then the chef does ademonstration about what they’ve bought and why,what the people can do with it, and recipes andsamples are handed out. “We don’t have any problemgetting chefs to come to the market,” Whitman says,“because it’s a rather high-end market and many ofthe chef ’s restaurant customers are also shoppers atthe market.”

Meet the Producer. A recent tie-in to the chef pro-gram is a weekly half-hour presentation in which aproducer or a panel speaks about why they grow cer-tain varieties and what it takes to get their product to

market. While incredibly informative with a loyalfollowing, attendance is less than a third that of thechef program. “People want to be entertained by ce-lebrity chefs and learn how to cook,” Whitman says.

Ferry Plaza, too, has added its own wrinkle to theidea of festivals centered around what’s in season.“Tasting festivals are a great way to move productsthat are in glut,” Whitman says, “but we feel it be-hooves the market to come up with something a littlemore creative than just comparing one grower’s prod-ucts against another’s. Some growers don’t like com-parative tastings because they feel it pits one groweragainst another. We feel that the Meet the Producerprogram accomplishes a little bit more than just hav-ing a product out on the table. It helps consumersunderstand why farmers’ market products are differ-ent than supermarket products.

To close their season, the market held “a discus-sion around the production of olive oil, different har-vesting schedules, and a tasting of the different oliveoil products.” Peggy Knickerbocker, author of a bookon California olive oils, facilitated the panel discus-sion. “Selling books is a good trade-off for authorsand it gives the people at the market something niceto bring home.” Check with a local bookstore, libraryor publisher to find local food authors.

“There are incredible resource people in any com-munity who are willing to participate in these kindsof events and you need to draw on these kinds ofresources,” Whitman emphasizes. If not profession-ally organized, these events reflect badly on present-ers and the market. Have a working loudspeaker,chairs, cooking equipment and a chef ’s assistant whocan run it on time, introduce the program, thankpeople afterwards and distribute samples.

“With panel discussions make sure the panelknows in advance the questions so they can be pre-pared. In the Meet the Producer programs, we askthe presenters to bring in things to make it attractive,such as photographs of their farms, and set up somekind of display on the table. The programs shouldn’tgo on too long, about a half-hour or 45 minutes maxi-mum.

“Look for nonprofit groups who are doing edu-cational work around such issues as food, nutritionor gardening. It’s an opportunity for them to get ex-posure.”

With weekly events, it’s hard to do extra publicityoutside market signs, but with other special events,extra efforts are called for.

Cooking with Kids

Cooking with Kids is a multicultural food educationprogram in New Mexico, currently operating in theSanta Fe and Cimarron public elementary schools.The program seeks to improve child nutrition throughhands-on preparation of foods from many culturesin the classroom. Trained food educators work withstudents to prepare foods that are healthy and ap-pealing. According to CWK program coordinatorLynn Walters, “If you’re trying to convince kids toeat flavorful, healthy foods, ask them to prepare itthemselves. The experience of eating and enjoyinggood foods, rather than just hearing the message ofwhat’s good for us, is really important. Cooking is afun and creative process. And when children eat well,they are prepared to learn. And as they become edu-cated about different foods, they are more likely tomake positive food choices.”

In addition to helping children learn healthy foodhabits, CWK classes provide opportunities for chil-dren to learn math, social studies, language arts, agri-culture, art and music. By studying and experiencingfood from around the world, the children also learnabout people of other cultures.

During the 2000-2001 school year, CWK is work-ing in seven Santa Fe elementary schools and oneschool in Cimarron, providing over 1,000 food edu-cation classes to students from kindergarten throughsixth grade.

Cooking Classes are taught by a CWK food edu-cator with teacher and volunteer help. Each class lastsabout 1 3/4 hours. The food educator provides a cul-tural context for each class, hands-on cooking instruc-tion, age appropriate curriculum activities, discussionquestions, and all materials, ingredients and suppliesnecessary for each meal.

One student commented on the recipe for Green& White Fettuccine with Tomato Basil Sauce: “It’sgreat; it’s not coming out of a package.” After cook-ing and eating Greek Pastitsio with MediterraneanSalad, another child said, “There is joy in my mouthnow.” The same meals are prepared and served by thecafeteria staff several times a month as lunch choicesin the school cafeterias.

The Integrated NutritionProject (INP) is a 5-A-Day

program that is currently reaching750 Hispanic children in elemen-tary schools in Denver, Colorado.According to Cathy Romaniello,an instructor with the Universityof Colorado Health Sciences Cen-ter, INP consists of 26 weekly nu-trition lessons focused on fruits andvegetables and how they fit into theFood Guide pyramid. The lessonsare linked to school district aca-

demic standards and are integratedinto literacy, science, and math.They are designed to be hands-onand include food preparation andeating fruits and/or vegetables ateach lesson.

Evaluation of this program fromprior years found that the INPachieved significant behaviorchanges in children. Compared tocontrol schools, INP children con-sumed 0.4 servings more fruits/

vegetables at school lunch than didcontrol children at the year-endpost test. INP children significantlyimproved knowledge and im-proved attitudes toward the schoollunch program.

— For information, contact CathyRomaniello, Instructor, Dept. ofPediatrics, University of ColoradoHealth Sciences Center, Denver,CO, 80262. 303-315-5401 [email protected]. ✿

The Integrated Nutrition Project

Tasting classes, taught by classroom teachers, al-ternate with cooking classes and are devoted to hav-ing kids explore the diverse varieties of particular foodssuch as tomatoes or apples.

“Forty-five percent of the children in the SantaFe Public Schools receive free or reduced-price meals,”Walters continues. “Studies show that school lunchis the only complete meal many children eat each day.Many children are no longer learning from their par-ents and grandparents how to make tamales or stru-del. One student even thought that food originatedin the refrigerator.”

To further the students’ food education CWK de-veloped a Farmer in the Schools program, which isnow coordinated by Friends of the Farmers’ Markets.The program brings local farmers into the classroomto talk about what they do and how they do it. Somefarmers bring slides to show during the 30- to 40-minute presentations as well as the fruits of their la-bor to share with the kids.

“The parents of children who are in the CWKprogram frequently talk about how enthusiastic theirchildren are after cooking in the classroom and thatthey like to cook more at home. We’re encouragedabout the possibility of getting children excited aboutcooking. If they don’t cook, they’re definitely not go-ing to know what to do with all of the beautiful pro-duce at the farmers’ market!”

An Integrated Curriculum Guide is being devel-oped by CWK and may be ready by fall 2001. Writeto Lynn Walters at Cooking with Kids, 3508 CaminoJalisco, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

Senior Nutrition Program

In Decorah, Iowa, the Farmers’ Market Se-nior Nutrition Program provides senior

citizens with coupons that can be redeemed at theirlocal market for fresh produce. According to directorConnie Burns, it is similar to the WIC Farmers’ Mar-ket Program and is funded through a local UnitedWay. “The farmers love it, as do the seniors!”

Burns coordinates the program as a dietitian at alocal hospital which gives “in kind” support through

secretarial time, supplies, and printing of pamphlets.Public health nurses are also involved in the distribu-tion of coupons to their senior clients.

“There is a significant percentage of senior citi-zens in Winneshiek County that have limited in-comes,” Burns says, “and the opportunity to includefresh produce in their nutrition plan may not haveoccurred without the program’s encouragement. Thesocial and physical interactions with producers andconsumers, who are advocates of healthy eating, fur-ther promotes these healthy habits. The interactionand instruction provided by the clinical dietitian, bothat the meal site and the farmers’ market, also rein-forces the value of having a greater intake of fruitsand vegetables as part of the senior participant’s diet.”

The Decorah Farmers’ Market has 21 vendors whoserved an average of 280 senior citizens in 1998. Be-sides providing seniors with a healthy diet of freshfruits and vegetables, the program provides seniorsan opportunity to socialize, get fresh air and exerciseby walking the market.

The clinical dietitian from the hospital providesnutrition presentations at the Decorah meal sites topromote the inclusion of fresh produce in the seniorcitizens’ diet plan and distributes coupons to encour-age seniors to register for participation in the pro-gram. They are exchanged for fresh produce fromfarmers who provide product information includingrecipes, food preparation and storage ideas. The di-etitian also is available at the market to monitor theprogram activities and to provide further education.

A participant survey indicated that 92% of theseniors increased their intake of fruits and vegetablesas a result of the program, 72% used all of their cou-pons during the season, and 67% visited the farmers’market six or more times in the season.

“The acceptance of the program and its utiliza-tion by the senior citizens in Decorah has been excel-lent,” Burns says. “The program has become populareven though we can only allocate two to four one-dollar coupons at a time to each participant. The edu-cation provided by the clinical dietitian at the mealsite is a key to the success of the program in having

the produce available from farmers in a local com-munity.”

According to Burns, “Any farmers’ market couldprobably set up a similar program. In fact, I’ve beentrying to get a ‘how to’ manual together. I’ve donethis program for seven seasons so far and have workedout the major bugs.” Contact info: Connie Burns,903 Walnut Street, Decorah, IA, 52101, 319-382-0173.

[For other senior nutrition resources, see Re-sources, Chapter 12]

© 2001 by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig & Eric Gibson. All rights reserved. May not be reprinted inany fashion except with written permission. Excerpt from "The New Farmers' Market." To order, send $24.95+ $4.50 shipping to: “QP Distribution,” 22260 “C” St.,Winfield, KS 67156. Credit card orders call 888-281-5170. California res. add $1.75 tax. Canada: $8.40 shipping—US funds. Quantity order discounts call 530-823-3886.

Resources & Networking�

Sustainable Organizations�and Associations�

Abundant Life Seed Foundation�Open-pollinated seeds, education and�networking.�P.O. Box 772, Port Townsend, WA�98368, 360-385-5660�[email protected]�www.abundantlifeseed.org�

Association Kokopelli�Seed saving society from France.�[email protected]�www.terredesemences.com�

ATTRA (Appropriate Technology�Transfer for Rural Areas)�Technical assistance, free of charge, to�current and aspiring sustainable farm-�ers in all 50 states.�

P.O. Box 3657, Fayetteville, AR�72702, 800-346-9140�www.attra.ncat.org�

Biodynamic Farming and Gardening�Association, Inc.�25844 Butler Road , Junction City,�OR 97448 , 888-516-7797 or 541-�998-0105 , fax: 541-998-0106�[email protected]�

Bioneers�Solutions for restoring the earth with�sustainable farm networks and work-�shops.�Collective Heritage Institute, 901�West San Mateo Rd., Suite L, Santa�Fe, NM 87505, 877-246-6337�[email protected]�www.bioneers.org�

Networking, supply sources, publications, law and policy updates, crop�pricing, workshops, internships, forums, associations. Resources may�combine several categories, such as organic growing associations that�also offer magazines and networking.�

Diet For a Small Planet and Hope’s�Edge Organization�Frances Moore Lappe and Anna�Lappe, Small Planet Fund at the�Funding Exchange, 666 Broadway,�Suite 500, New York, NY 10012�www.dietforasmallplanet.com�

Ecology Action�Biointensive growing method.�18001 Shafer Ranch Road, Willits,�CA 95490-9626, 707-459-6410�[email protected]�www.growbiointensive.org�www.bountifulgardens.org�

Homestead.org�Rural living information, networking,�resources.�www.homestead.org�

N.O.R.M.�National Organization for Raw Mate-�rials, Randy Cook, President, 680 E. 5�Point Highway, Charlotte, MI 48813,�517-543-0111�[email protected]�www.normeconomics.org�

Organic Trade Association�P.O. Box 547, Greenfield, MA 01301,�413-774-7511�[email protected]�www.ota.com�

Remineralize the Earth, Inc.�Foundation dedicated to restoring all�of the earth’s lost minerals in original�balance.�152 South St., Northampton, MA�01060-4021, 413-586-4429�[email protected]�www.remineralize-the-earth.org�

Seed Savers Exchange�3076 North Winn Rd., Decorah, Iowa�52101, 319-382-5990�[email protected]�www.seedsavers.org�

Slow Food Movement�[email protected]�www.slowfood.com�

The Campaign to Label Genetically�Engineered Foods�P.O. Box 55699, Seattle, WA 98155,�425-771-4049�[email protected]�www.thecampaign.org�

The Square Foot Gardening Founda-�tion�[email protected]�www.squarefootgardening.com�

Supply or Seed Sources�

Acadian Seaplants Limited�Kelp meal for soil and animal rations.�30 Brown Avenue, Dartmouth, Nova�Scotia, Canada B3B 1X8, 800-575-�9100�[email protected]�www.acadianseaplants.com�

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds�2278 Baker Creek Road, Mansfield,�MO 65704, 417-924-1222�[email protected]�www.rareseeds.com�

Caprine Supply�Products for goats, including small,�rarer breeds: milk, cheese, soap, pack-�ing, more.�P. O. Box Y, De Soto, KS 66018,�913-585-1191, Fax: 913-585-1140�[email protected]�www.caprinesupply.com�

Forestfarm�A huge variety of high quality trees�and shrubs from wild lilacs to native�maples.�990 Tetherow Rd., Williams, OR�97544-9599, 541-846-7269�[email protected]�www.forestfarm.com�

Garden State Heirloom Seed Society�P.O. Box 15, Delaware, NJ 07833�www.historyyoucaneat.org�

Gardens Alive�Sustainable gardening products includ-�ing sea and rock dust soil additions�and beneficial microbes.�5100 Schenely Place, Lawrenceburg,�IN 47025, 513-354-1482�www.gardensalive.com�

Growing Solutions�Compost tea equipment and ingredi-�ents.�888-600-9558�www.growingsolutions.com�

Heirloom Acres LLC�P.O. Box 194, New Bloomfield, Mo.�65063, 573-491-3001�www.heirloomacres.net�

Heirloom Roses, Inc.�24062 NE Riverside Drive, St. Paul,�OR 97137, 800-820-0465�[email protected]�www.heirloomroses.com�

Johnny’s Selected Seeds�955 Benton Ave., Winslow, Maine�04901, 207-861-3900�[email protected]�www.johnnyseeds.com�

Jon’s Heirloom Plants�P.O. Box 54, Mansfield, MO 65704,�870-404-4771�[email protected]�www.jonsplants.net�

Lois G. Lenz�Website with source of alkalizing water�and cleansers, and other natural reme-�dies.�www.ascendingenterprises.com�

Marianna’s Heirloom Seeds�1955 CCC Road, Dickson, TN 37005�www.mariseeds.com�

Native Seeds Search�526 North 4th Ave., Tucson, AZ�85705-8450, 520-622-5561�[email protected]�www.nativeseeds.org�

Neptune’s Harvest�Organic sea-based fertilizers.�88 Commercial Street, Gloucester,�MA 01930, 800-259-GROW (4769)�

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply�Supplies for sustainable agriculture.�P.O. Box 2209, Grass Valley, CA�95945, 888-784-1722�www.groworganic.com�

Raintree Nursery�391 Butts Road, Morton, WA 98356,�360-496-6400, Fax 888-770-8358�[email protected]�www.raintreenursery.com�

Seeds of Change�Sustainably produced seeds from�around the world, rare fruit trees.�P.O. Box 15700, Santa Fe, NM�87592-1500, 888-762-7333�[email protected]�www.seedsofchange.com�

Select Seeds�

Antique flower seeds�180 Stickney Rd., Union, CT 06076,�860-684-9310�[email protected]�www.selectseeds.com�

SoilSoupInc.�9792 Edmonds Way #247, Edmonds,�WA 98020, 877-711-7687,�[email protected],�www.soilsoup.com�

South Meadow Fruit Gardens�Rare and connoisseur fruit trees.�10603 Cleveland Ave., Baroda, MI�49101, 269-422-2411�[email protected]�www.southmeadowfruitgardens.com�

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange�P.O. Box 460, Mineral, VA 23117,�540-894-9481�[email protected]�www.southernexposure.com�

St. Lawrence Nurseries�Rare fruit trees.�325 State Hwy. 345, Potsdam, NY�13676, 315-265-6739�[email protected]�www.sln.potsdam.ny.us�

The Cook’s Garden�Seeds and supplies for kitchen garden-�ers.�P.O. Box 535, Londonderry, VT�05148, 800-457-9703�[email protected]�www.cooksgarden.com�

The Territorial Seed Company�P.O. Box 158, Cottage Grove, OR�97424-0061, 541-942-9547�[email protected]�www.territorial-seed.com�

Books and Periodicals�

Acres USA�A voice for eco-agriculture, monthly�publication, conferences, huge selec-�tion of books which includes many�hard-to-find books including�The�Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm�and Stable� by Juliette de Bairacli Levy�and work by Andre Voisin.�P.O. Box 91299, Austin, TX 78709,�800-355-5313�[email protected]�www.acresusa.com�

BackHome Magazine�Small farming and sustainable living.�P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, NC�28742, 800-992-2546�www.backhomemagazine.com�

Backyard Market Gardening�By Andrew Le�e�Production, marketing, for market gar-�deners.�See�New World Publishing�Bookshelf� below.�

Cash from Square Foot Gardening�by Mel Bartholomew�The Square Foot Gardening Founda-�tion�[email protected]�www.squarefootgardening.com�

Diet For a Small Planet, and Hope’s�Edge�www.dietforasmallplanet.com�

Four-Season Harvest�by Eliot Coleman, Kathy Bary, and�Barbara Damrosch�www.fourseasonfarm.com�

Growing for Market�News and ideas for market gardeners.�P.O. Box 3747, Lawrence, Kansas�66046, 800-307-8949, Fax: 785-748-�0609�[email protected]�www.growingformarket.com�

Hobby Farms Magazine�Rural living for pleasure and profit.�P.O. Box 58701, Boulder, CO 80322-�8701, 800-365-4421�[email protected]�

How To Grow More Vegetables Than�You Ever Thought Possible on Less�Land Than You Can Imagine�by John Jeavons�www.growbiointensive.org,�www.bountifulgardens.org�

LaSagna Gardening�by Patricia Lanza, Rodale Press, Inc.�www.lasagnagardening.com�

MetroFarm: The Guide to Growing�for Big Profit on a Small Parcel of�Land�by Michael Olson�P.O. Box 1244, Santa Cruz, CA�95061, 831-427-1620�[email protected]�www.metrofarm.com�

Michael McGroarty�Books and articles on growing land-�scape plants on 1/20th of an acre.�P.O. Box 338, Perry, Ohio 44081�[email protected]�www.freeplants.com�

New World Publishing�Publisher of this book, as well as�Sell�What You Sow!,�The New Farmers’�Market,� and�Wild Herbs.� Online cata-�log,�New World Publishing Bookshelf,�has dozens of titles on sustainable agri-�culture, green building, and renewable�energy. (See p. 175).�11543 Quartz Dr. #1, Auburn, CA�95602, 530-823-3886�[email protected]�www.nwpub.net�

Organic Gardening Magazine�33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA�18098, 610-967-5171�[email protected]�www.organicgardening.com�

How to Have a Green Thumb With-�out an Aching Back: A New Method of�Mulch Gardening�by Ruth Stout�www.earthlypursuits.com�

Sharing The Harvest�By Elizabeth Henderson�All about Community Supported Ag-�riculture (CSA).�See�New World Pub-�lishing Bookshelf� above.�

Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables�Year-Round the American Intensive�Way�(American Intensive Method)�by Leandre Poisson and Gretchen Vo-�gel Poisson�Chelsea Green Publishing�www.chelseagreen.com�

The Growing Edge Magazine�Hydroponics, aeroponics, greenhouses,�explores sustainable methods.�P.O. Box 1027, Corvallis, OR 97339-�1027, USA: 800-888-6785, World-�wide: 1-541-757-8477, Fax: 541-757-�0028�www.growingedge.com�

The Heirloom Gardener Magazine�Hill Folk’s Publishing, 2278 Baker�Creek Road, Mansfield, MO 65704,�417-924-1222�[email protected]�www.theheirloomgardener.com�

The Permaculture Activist�Publication for Permaculture, the�study of allowing the earth to do more�and more, the human to do less and�less, while increasing productivity.�P.O. Box 1209, Black Mountain, NC�28711, 828-669-6336�[email protected]�www.permacultureactivist.net�Other sources for Permaculture infor-�mation include:�Acres USA� (see above).�

Networking, Workshops,�Information Centers, etc.�

Andre Voisin (see Acres)�

CSA-L�E-mail list and discussion group on�Community Supported Agriculture�(CSA).�http://www.prairienet.org/pcsa/CSA-L�

GardenWeb Forums�The largest community of gardeners�on the internet, with many threads of�interest to high-value crop grow�ers and�marketers.�http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums�

Ken Hargesheimer�Workshops and information on organ-�ic, biointensive, raised-bed gardening,�market gardening, mini-farming, and�mini-ranching worldwide.�P.O. Box 1901, Lubbock, Texas�79408-1901, 806-744-8517, Fax 806-�747-0500�[email protected]�www.minifarms.com�

Market Farming�E-mail list and discussion group plus�helpful articles on market farming.�www.marketfarming.net�

Organic Research.com�Updates on policies, certification, or-�ganic farming research.�CABI Publishing North America, 44�Brattle Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge,�MA 02138, 800-528 4841�[email protected]�

Peter Weis, Futurist�Holistic health, sustainable farming,�restoring the 72+ trace elements.�#306 - 1035 Pendergast Street, Victo-�ria, BC, Canada V8V 2W9�[email protected]�www.truehealth.org�

Sylvia and Walter Ehrhardt�Internships and information on small�organic farming.�Fax: 301-834-5070�[email protected]�

The “NEW FARM” web site�Information on organic farming, price�indexes for organic foods, and forum�for organic farmers.�www.newfarm.org�

The Stewardship Community�Guidestone CSA Farm and Center for�Sustainable Living, 5943 N. County�Road 29, Loveland, Colorado 80538,�970-461-0272�[email protected]�www.stewardshipcommunity.org�

Resources Section of:�Micro Eco-Farm-�ing: Prospering from Backyard to Small�Acreage in Partnership with the Earth�.�Copyright ©2004 by Barbara Berst�Adams. To order, call 888-281-5170�or online at www.nwpub.net.�

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