There should be more Farmer’s Markets in this country. We the public, should have the choice of buying our food direct from farmers and producers. Before i list the virtues of Farmer’s Markets, i would like to list the virtues of supermarkets:

Supermarkets bring us food from all over the world, at competitive prices.
Supermarkets create a standard, of food quality – which is good enough to trust to keep us healthy.
Supermarkets make it easy for us to shop, via pre-packaged, processed foods, and easy to get to shops, with ample parking.

Now i would like to list the virtues of Farmer’s Markets:

At a Farmer’s Market you buy direct from a farmer/producer, so you support the actual people that produce, they get a fair price and the customer gets a fair price ( i sell at markets and our produce is also for sale in some nearby quality grocers, for very much more money ).

At Farmer’s Markets, you not only support small local business, but it is good for the environment having our food travel, in most cases – less than 50 miles, to get to your shopping basket.

At Farmer’s Markets you have a range of produce that far surpasses ‘any’ supermarket. Even on ‘one’ fruit and vegetable stall, there is much more variety than any of the best quality supermarkets. Let us use a couple of examples, say Fruit = apples, and vegetables = tomatoes. In the supermarkets, there is usually no more than six or seven varieties of apple at any one time, and they are mainly of a uniform taste- not too sweet/not too sharp; on one stall alone there maybe a dozen or more apple varieties at any one time, and 30 or more varieties through the season: all with totally different tastes.
Tomato varieties in the supermarkets are usually no more than six or seven. On a good Farmer’s market stall, there may be a dozen types of tomato variety for sale, and each tasting very different.
And i am talking one good fruit and vegetable seller, now times that by two or three, and remember the varieties you ‘never’ see in the supermarkets:
Does your supermarket sell, radishes ‘with’ the leaves , redcurrents/whitecurrents, wild garlic, nettles, early/forced rhubarb, San Marzano tomatoes (my favourite variety)/beef tomatoes, salad leaves like sorrel, and mustard leaves, claytonia, land cress, swiss chard, more than one type of beetroot, beetroot leaves. How many varieties of courgette ? Patty pans? How many types of aubergine? Cobnuts,quince, meddlars? Any type of edible flowers – like courgette flowers , borage flowers?
All this i have experience selling on just one stall, and much more.

The food quality on a Farmer’s Market is very high. Customers demand to know how the things we sell are grown or made, and can get an answer from those who sell at Farmer’s Markets. On a market stall, you can in many cases speak directly with the farmer, or with someone who works on the farm, and knows the process of production intimately. Even when you speak with someone who may only have a Saturday/Sunday job on a stall, they can easily get your questions answered by their boss, who probably will be there to pack up the stall that evening for them. People who work on stalls, know their business.
Another aspect, the most important maybe, is taste. Things are grown locally on small farms not for the appearance but for the taste.
One more aspect is the health benefits of smaller scale producers. Many producers are organic certified, and many still grow naturally without having to resort to the use of the most toxic chemicals that large scale producers use. We use traditional and modern methods in many cases, to combat pests and diseases, like: companion planting, the use of natural based chemicals, the use of planting certain types of flowers that ward of pests, and the use of other insects as natural predators (ladybirds eat aphids like their is no tomorrow – cute but deadly).
I once worked on a market, and one young man told me he had been allergic to apples since he was a small child – and only just started eating apples (he was in his early twenties i think) from sellers at Farmer’s Markets, but still was unable to eat apples from supermarkets.
Whether or not, it was the pesticides that are used in the mass production of apples, that caused an allergy in the man i mentioned, it is still something to bear in mind. Mass production requires the use of pesticides whether there are any problems with the crop or not. Smaller scale farms selling at markets, use chemicals only if their is a problem with their crop, and possibly not at-all, although hard fruits like apples are hard to grow without issue. Growing salads and vegetables is easier in many ways.

Eating seasonally, even in a small way – makes you feel better, in my experience. The health benefits of keeping closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons, in my opinion may well combat a lot of the springtime/autumn colds and flues – that many of us are affected by each year. Together with the quality and variety of produce on offer, and the benefits of real home cooked, unprocessed meals on our tables, the health benefits are real and many.

The last point i would like to make about Farmer’s markets is their social function within a community.
They are an asset to any community lucky enough to have a good market. I spent a few years doing one particular Farmer’s Market in the Fulham area of London, and people did not come to buy their shopping and go, they came to ask the, ‘how, where and why ‘of what i sold. They would go from one stall back to another chatting with the traders before they made a purchase. People did not just queue in line, to await their turns, they chatted with one another, formed friendships and would talk about how they cooked, and exchanged recipes and tips – many of which i am thankful for. My customers came from every corner of the globe, and would discuss different cooking methods, varieties of fruit and vegetables and ‘the good life’ in general. Food is important! It is one of the greatest cultural assets we have, and brings people together in many ways, all of them good.
People would bring their children, and a large part of my customer base were young families just starting out in life, wanting to give their children the best start on the road to good health. Children were everywhere, including many mothers to be. Families would come to show their children where their food came from, as most produce was not packaged or trimmed up before sale (think veg like leeks, carrots, beetroot, and radish with the leaves on still ) and those selling were very knowledgeable, children could form a better picture of how things were grown and by whom – as-well as seeing the pre-packaged article. Customers would strike up relationships, and long lasting friendships with the traders, and some children would even maybe go on to work for a trader.
As-well as urban communities forming relationships with farmers from the country, a market would be a place where all people from the local community would come together.
People would come with their children, or on their own, and would stay chatting for hours after they had bought their shopping, kids always had the room to play and would not get bored. Markets are a destination for an afternoon or morning out in their own right; a place to meet and socialize; and a place to focus children’s attention on food and well-being, as-well as somewhere to focus adults attention on the important thing in life, real culture, a culture shared with communities all over the world – for countless generations, and now into our modern times.

Many people seem to agree, our modern ‘unsustainable’ life – needs to change. We as communities, both local and national, need to change our habits, our outlook and aspirations, in life. Health, community, diversity, sustainability, ‘the good life’; i think are things worth the effort of change on our part. My view is we should have more Farmer’s Markets. The actual choice lies with us-all, the public.

Do we want to be able to buy from farmers at ‘real’ farmer’s markets?

If so look up your nearest Farmer’s Market, and have a look what they sell throughout the season go back a few times, as the season progresses, and talk to people at the market, about the produce on offer, different traders, other markets. If you have no market in your area, look at some of the people who run markets in other areas,and ask them if they have thought of running one in yours, contact your local council, talk with community groups in your area, or even start a community group to gather support for a market in your area.

Thanks for reading,
Mike