The Farmer’s Market is expanding operations to include a food-only Friday morning market from 7:30 until 10:00 a.m., according to Market Master Rob Bankston. A number of local businesses, including On the Rise Bread Company, Adagio, Chadz, and Hearthstone will be serving breakfast featuring local ingredients alongside market vendors selling fresh produce and prepared food including sticky buns, breakfast sandwiches, baked bread, and fresh-baked pies.
The food-only market on Friday mornings will supplement the regular market, which is currently held every Wednesday from 4:30 until 7:30 p.m. in front of the Miles Park Bandshell. The Wednesday market fare is varied and includes fresh produce, meat from local ranchers, shaved ice, fresh-cut flowers, plant starts, hot dogs and hamburgers, draft beer, jewelry, custom lawn chairs, pottery, massages, fresh bread, seafood, framed art-work, baked goods, and other wares. Many food vendors say they can demonstrate higher quality than is available in supermarket equivalents, and most offer samples and background information about their products.
Many market-goers describe the market as a community event rather than a simple shopping experience. There is a free raffle every half hour and local businesses donate items ranging from deep-fried Oreos to hot springs passes to gift certificates. Extra tickets are given to those who walk or bike to the market, and those who bring their own grocery bags. Every market features live music from 7 to 9 p.m., children and dogs are welcome, and local non-profits sponsor booths with information about their programs and volunteer opportunities.
The non-profit Corporation for the Northern Rockies (CNR) took over management of the weekly Farmers Market from the Livingston Depot Foundation in the early 2000s, and continues to manage the market. The market initially sprang from the efforts of five women: Ursula Neese, Dee Dee VanZyl, Betse Stuart, Hillary Roth, and Traci Isaly. Neese says they had no interest in managing the market, but saw a place for it in the community, and “did the legwork” to gauge interest and get vendors involved.
Big Brothers Big Sisters began managing the market in 1997, and the non-profit held the market at the fairgrounds for a short stretch before moving to Rotary Depot Park, where the Depot Foundation eventually assumed management. The Depot ran the market for about three years before CNR assumed management and moved the market to the Miles Park Bandshell, according to Lill Erickson, founder and executive director of CNR.
The upcoming Friday Farmer’s Market will reflect the growth the market has seen over the last seven years, says Erickson. Rob Bankston, Market Master, reports that when CNR began running the market a maximum of thirty-two vendors participated. The market eventually expanded to include as many as sixty-seven vendors, and over the 2007 season a total of 600 vendors participated, reporting $115,000 in sales.
Weekly attendance ranges from two to five hundred market-goers on average, says Bankston, who volunteers at the Farmer’s Market and six other local organizations. Bankston’s service in the community recently merited the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award. He says the market is a great community event and he is proud to be a part of it.
Erickson says a good reason to come to the Farmer’s Market is “it’s fun!” Also, the market “creates a sense of community” and “strengthens bonds among the people.” She calls the market a cycle of giving and receiving, and “a gentle kind of economic development that is very powerful.”
She also stresses the importance of “knowing your grower,” or establishing a relationship with a local farmer and being aware of where food comes from and how it is treated. Erickson says the Farmer’s Market is “an important component of a comprehensive marketing program that CNR has.” CNR promotes sustainable stewardship by focusing on economic incentives of sustainable practices and facilitating their employment, according to Erickson. Their marketing program includes the “Farm to Restaurant Campaign,” a state-wide campaign to facilitate the sale of regional meat and produce to local restaurants, which brought more than $150,000 to six regional producers last year from participating restaurants.
CNR encourages children to participate in the Farmer’s Market, offering “youth booths” for $2 each Wednesday. The booths were previously free to children, but CNR began charging a small fee in order to educate young entrepreneurs about business costs. Erickson says the children’s program is “one of the best economic development tools” as it teaches business skills and concepts like overhead and supply and demand. CNR donates the proceeds from youth booths to local non-profits, often with much ceremony, to teach children to give back to the community.
Some children are already doing well in the program. Hannah Gracey, 12-year-old jewelry maker, has benefitted from selling earrings from her booth “Hannah’s Creations.” Her success at the market selling earrings made from glass beads and clear string resulted in being offered a display at the Obsidian Collection, where she sells finer sterling silver pieces with some semi-precious stones. Gracey casually refers to her earring trade as “a side thing.” Other children sell everything from baked goods to painted rocks to spoon puppets.
July 16 will be Kids Day at the market, with a magician, a dunk tank, music by Jimmy Conley’s students, and other attractions.
Local businesses and organizations also work with CNR to make the market a success. Livingston Memorial Hospital, through the efforts of food and nutrition services manager Jessica Wilcox, works with CNR and market vendors to serve and sell local products at the hospital. Currently the hospital purchases all of its beef and lamb from vendors Wolfridge Lamb and Indreland Beef, and Wilcox is working with health inspector Doris Morgan to begin serving local produce as well. Wilcox says the hospital’s efforts to buy locally help the local economy, decrease the hospital’s carbon footprint, and provide food of a higher quality and nutrient content to patients and visitors at the hospital.
Many people involved with CNR and the Farmer’s Market express optimism about statewide success in efforts to buy local, natural food products. Programs like the Farm to Restaurant Campaign, the Farm to School program, and Livingston HealthCare’s budding “farm to hospital” program are meeting with success and garnering state-wide interest, according to Wilcox.
CNR’s Lill Erickson sees the new Friday morning Farmer’s Market as an important step in developing community participation in the Farmer’s Market. Many local businesses and institutions are beginning to buy local products, and many are finding the endeavor economically viable. The Farmer’s Market serves as a hub of local trade and community interaction, and recent growth of the market indicates growing community support of the burgeoning trend to buy local and sustainable products.
—Wes Venteicher
editor@livingstonweekly.com
Great Post. Thanks Landscapers Directory
Posted by: | December 07, 2009 at 08:17 AM