Why I like Buying Food at Farmer's Market

In a world where we are becoming increasingly distant from the production of the things we own, many food, products, and furniture comes from another country. The cultivation of crops or the factory workers who spend long days churning out products for our consumption are but a fleeting thought. Yet, at a farmer's market, as you hand cash to the farmer, your skin brushes against theirs, a smile is exchanged and the growing of your food is no longer a faraway process or a fleeting thought. You have come into contact with the grower of your food, the dry cracked hands of the farmer who picked it juxtaposed with your freshly lotioned and manicured fingers touching briefly. You are connected to your food, bonded by the universal necessity to eat. I have always loved going to farmer's market and I am just beginning to understand why.

Our little Howdy Farm booth this past Saturday

This week at the market we had carrots, red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, romaine and a few jalepeno peppers. We had lots of red Russian kale and romaine. I made a little board discussing the farm and the organic methods we use and put it out at our table. I think it was effective in letting people know that we are on-campus, student run, and organic. I did a bit more surveying this week, too. The biggest trend I have seen is that the majority of the customers have been coming for years, attend regularly, and found out about the market through a friend. There were a few first timers, and I was sure to ask them how they found out about our little market. Oh, how I would love to see it grow! I would also love to see more students come.

The little board I made

Sales were good. Toward the end we had a decent amount of the red Russian kale and romaine remaining. A man helping put on an on campus sustainability conference bought all our red Russian kale to serve at the conference, showing off a little with produce grown on campus. So we did end with quite a bit of romaine left. It is always interesting to me to see which items are the most popular. I look forward to offering a greater variety of produce in the coming months!

Some of the other booths

Checking In

The cold of the past few weeks hasn't been great for the farm. Fortunately, the sun is now shining and things are looking bright. On Saturday, February 8th, we made the trek to the market, though the majority of the other farmers did not. We were one of the only one's selling veggies so we sold out very early. I also started surveying people to find out about ways to improve our offerings at the market and how to improve the market as a whole. I hope to get more input from buyers at coming markets, but we've already gotten a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, this past weekend there wasn't enough harvest to merit going to the market.

Just before we sold out

The cold also meant I spent quite a bit of time in the green house....

Planting asparagus outside on a nicer day......

This asparagus was transplanted from another bed. I had no idea that is what an asparagus plant looks like, pretty cool huh? I have zero previous experience in gardening so it is really interesting learning about organic methods. The whole idea of growing certain plants to revitalize the soil or growing two particular plants in the same bed as they help each other grow are not really things I had previously thought about. I am certainly gaining a new appreciation for where my food comes from.

Cultivating Crops and Community

I'm already three weeks into the semester.  I can hardly believe it. Things started off a bit slow due to weather conditions, but I am now in the full swing of things. I was able to spend several hours on both Wednesday and Friday working at the farm. Planting, cultivating, tilling, weeding, cleaning and bundling veggies took up my time there. I am amazed at how great it feels to get out there and work in the dirt, especially when the weather is beautiful. There's something wonderful about being outdoors, planting or weeding. It gives me time to think, to breath, to contemplate and, of course, get to know some awesome ags. And harvesting carrots is so much fun!

It is a project based internship, and my project involves the farmers' market. Much of our produce goes to a local brewery, Blackwater Draw, but the rest we sell at a local farmers' market. So, Saturday morning I met up with two other people at a little parking lot in Bryan to sell the produce we had bundled the day before. I cannot say I was super excited about waking up early Saturday morning, but it was so worth it. Here in the BCS area, there is a definite distinction between the students and the locals. To be able to talk to the people selling produce at the booths around us and also customers was lovely. I really wish there was more interaction between the locals of the area and the students. We really are one community sharing this Brazos Valley and can learn so much from each other.

 

A bit of what we had as we kept most of it in coolers and restocked when things sold

The lady at the table next to ours sold olive oil that she produces from her orchard in Italy. (Hire me, maybe???). The lady on the other side was asking us if we knew any student groups that would collect cans for a project she is doing in Guatemala.  Contrary to what one might expect, there was no competitive spirit. "You want some carrots? Well, we are out but that person across the way looks like they still have some." The olive oil lady brought us over her extra samples of bread cubes and a dish of olive oil to eat at the end (so so good). The guy from two tables the other way gave me a bag of lettuce he had leftover as he knew he would not use it. There's really no competition. Just community. And maybe that's because of the nature of the occasion. Sustainable agriculture is a tough way to make a living. Mass producing pesticide laden produce is so much more profitable. Maybe the spirit of camaraderie is born of necessity. If we didn't stick together, we couldn't survive. I'm not quite sure and I do not want to be the new kid who thinks she knows it all. Moral of the story: people are good, y'all.

From a business standpoint, sales were pretty good. I do not have much to compare it to though. We sold some of the produce at cheaper price than I think we normally would have because of some freeze damage. Most of those things sold out. I was surprised that we sold out of both kinds of Kale (Red Russian and Dinosaur) as we had lots of it. I was also surprised that we had a few bunches of romaine left at the end as the Romaine was so good looking. (Yes, veggies can be good looking. See carrots above). We also had a bit of collard greens, some peppers and quite a few mustard greens left, but sold out of everything else. I think people did not buy as much of the collard and mustard greens because they do not quite know how to eat them. They really are tasty though so I am considering making little cards with serving suggestions / recipe ideas and  some nutrient info to give out and see if that affects whether people buy more of the less familiar items.  I kept track of all the sales and put these into a spreadsheet after I got home so that we can keep track of how much we sell of each thing, what is most popular, how much money is made from each crop, etc. It will be interesting to compare to future weeks. I am also planning to survey people who come out the market to get ideas for the future.

I look forward to spending more time out at Howdy Farm next week and helping out a future markets.