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Farmers’ market seeks sellers for upcoming season
By Justin Goble
Jackson County Farmers’ Market organizers are looking for vendors who are willing to sell produce for the upcoming season.
Though the market is held at the municipal parking lot on Railroad Avenue on Saturday mornings during the summer months, organizers are trying to find willing sellers now, since it’s the time many growers select and order seed.
According to Ron Arps, who has been organizing the market with Karen White, the reason for recruiting sellers this early is to prepare for the increase in customers that is expected this summer.
“I really have noticed a big change from when we started (four years ago),” Arps said. “I don’t have numbers, but it has gotten to a point where there’s a pretty continuous flow of customers the whole time. Looking at my income from the farmer’s market, it has gone up 40 percent. We had more vendors last year than we ever did, and there has been a lot of demand.”
There is no charge for people to sell produce at the market, Arps said. People are welcome to bring whatever fruits or vegetables they have to the parking lot and offer it to customers.
“We don’t have spaces people rent,” he said. “There’s no cost to come and sell. It’s OK for people to pull up their trucks and sell their vegetables. It’s fine for people to just show up and start selling things. If you bring it in, it probably will sell. If you have good quality stuff, it will sell. I don’t always sell out, but I usually don’t take a lot of it home with me, either.”
If past experience is any indication, Arps said the market will need basic items for the upcoming summer months. He said beans, corn, greens and tomatoes are almost always the first produce to disappear on Saturday mornings.
“We never seem to have enough tomatoes or corn,” he said.
Offering locally grown food is more than just giving growers an avenue to sell the extra produce. For one, it allows customers to talk to the grower and learn what has been used in the growing process.
“I think it’s important for people to buy local,” he said. “They have more control over what they buy, and they have more information. I’m an organic grower, but I’m not certified. I don’t feel the need to be certified, because the customers that I sell to can ask me questions personally. People buy food from supermarkets, and they don’t have any information about it.”
Along with being able to get information directly from the grower, buying locally ensures that the produce is fresh.
“Customers tell me that the food is so fresh and it lasts longer,” Arps said. “If you don’t use it right away, you can store it and it will stay good. Many times people bring something home from the supermarket and don’t use it all. Two or three days later what they didn’t use has gone bad.”
“Most food in grocery stores travels 1,500 miles,” he said. “It’s all picked green, and then it’s put in a truck for a week. It may be artificially ripened with gasses while being transported. The food is two weeks old before it gets to the shelves.”
Since local food is so fresh, it often tastes better than what is offered at the supermarket. This is why not only private customers are turning to local markets to get fruits and vegetables, but restaurants are doing so as well, Arps said.
“It tastes different,” he said. “It tastes better. There’s a big movement in restaurants to buy local food because it tastes better.”
Along with providing customers fresher, better-tasting fruits and vegetables, Arps said the market keeps the majority of the money customers spend on produce in the community.
“The market helps the local economy,” he said. “If you buy local produce, 80 percent of the money stays local. If you buy food from a supermarket, 80 percent of that money goes somewhere else.”
As an example, Arps said he used money he got at the market to find supplies for his garden in the county.
“I look for resources locally for my garden,” he said. “I get manure and supplies locally. I think that helps the community. Other people probably do that too.”
Customers are also able to get many items that may not be on the shelves at chain stores, Arps said. Since supermarkets usually buy only the things they think will sell, many kinds of produce aren’t easily attainable because the store simply chooses not to buy them.
“There’s more diversity at the market,” Arps said. “What you can buy at the store is channelled. The farmers’ market has a lot of different things you won’t find in grocery stores. If we don’t have something, we usually know someone who does. We refer people a lot with the information we have.”
An unexpected hurdle the market faces stems from the mountain tradition of canning extra produce so it can be stored indefinitely. While Arps said he was not against the practice, he argues that sometimes it can get excessive.
“One thing that keeps people from bringing in extra produce is what seems to be a tradition in the mountains,” Arps said. “If you grow more than you use, you either give it away or can it. But I know people who have canned beans from 10 years ago. It’s a whole different thought process to bring extra produce and sell it.”
But the market is more than gathering to sell fruit and vegetables on Saturday mornings. Arps said vendors and customers get to meet people they wouldn’t know otherwise. While this allows relationships to develop, it also helps information spread among growers and customers.
“I feel like we have a real cameraderie,” Arps said. “We buy each other’s stuff. We share notes on selling and growing. It’s a real nice thing talking with other growers and customers. People do get a real loyal group of customers every week. For one thing, it gives people contact with people in the county that are growing things.”
“I think of it in terms of change in Jackson County,” he said. “When I moved here 20 years ago, we had a lot of local stores. They sold things that everyone used. I think that’s one big thing the market does. People are out there with local things that neighbors need. We’re also a good resource. People can come and ask us about things. And a lot of people that are coming into Jackson County don’t have their own garden.”
Starting and ending dates for the market vary by grower. Some things are ready to sell in May, while others are ready later, Arps said. The general time-frame is from May to October.
“For some people, it starts in May,” Arps said. “Some people sell plants, and those are ready in May. June is when most produce sellers go out and start selling. My own cut-off date is the weekend before the Mountain Heritage Day (in September). The weekend of the festival, we usually don’t have many customers. People with plants and apples continue to sell through October, though.”
Though the market’s focus is mainly on local produce, Arps said he would like to see it grow to include all kinds of people. He envisions people cooking food and selling it on site while local musicians entertain both sellers and customers.
“We’ve had a couple of crafts sellers in the past,” he said. “There’s room for people who sell crafts, as well as those who sell jams and jellies and cookies, though those have to be made in kitchens approved by the health department. Kids can come and sell things. One came and sold soap. We’d also love to have musicians come and play. I’d also be happy to have people make food and sell it.”
For more information about selling produce at the market, contact Karen White at 227-2088.
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