For years now, increasingly pressed-for-time consumers have opted for convenience over quality when it comes to shopping for their families. Let’s face it, most supermarkets are open twenty-four hours. And that’s helpful when you’re a busy homemaker or a time-strapped, nine-to-five type trying to squeeze shopping in between the dozen or so other errands on that day’s "to do" list.
Bay Area consumers reap the benefits of local, seasonal, garden fare
By Bill Picture
Published: August, 2005
For years now, increasingly pressed-for-time consumers have opted for convenience over quality when it comes to shopping for their families. Let’s face it, most supermarkets are open twenty-four hours. And that’s helpful when you’re a busy homemaker or a time-strapped, nine-to-five type trying to squeeze shopping in between the dozen or so other errands on that day’s "to do" list.
But as concerns over food safety increase, more and more consumers are insisting on knowing where the food they serve their families is coming from and how it was produced. And, as a result, they’re rediscovering the health benefits, the savings and the sheer joy of buying direct from smaller food producers, particularly organic farmers, as evidenced by the surge of late in the number of farmer’s markets.
At last count, the Bay Area boasted more than 120 weekly farmer’s markets during the peak summer season, thus affording urbanites a unique opportunity to fill their crispers with farm-fresh and, in many cases, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables purchased directly from the growers who planted them, tended them and harvested them.
"Organic food production and retail is the fastest growing segment of the food industry," says Lynn Bagley of the Golden Gate Farmers’ Market Association (GGFMA). GGFMA manages three farmer’s markets in Marin County, including a popular one at Larkspur Landing.
The Larkspur Farmer’s Market is barely four-years-old, a relative baby in comparison to, say, the Alemany Farmer’s Market in San Francisco, which turned sixty-two last month. Still, Larkspur attracts, on average, about seven-hundred shoppers each week, and Bagley says that number is growing steadily.
"I think that’s because Americans are starting to change the way they eat," she explains. "They’re eating more fruits and vegetables, and they’re buying a lot more fresh produce. It’s isn’t rocket science. The rawer [produce] is, the better it is for you."
Organic or not?
Nearly half of the farmers who attend the Larkspur Farmer’s Market farm organically. The same is true at the nearby Marin Civic Center Farmer’s Market, just a few miles up the 101 Freeway from Larkspur.
The Marin Civic Center Farmer’s Market, founded in 1984, is one of the largest in the Bay Area. Each week, as many as 8,000 people peruse its hundred or so stalls, which are set up in a large parking lot adjacent to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center.
But the ratio of organic versus so-called "conventional" farmers varies from one market to the next. For instance, of the fifty farmers who attend the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza, only one or two farm organically.
Heart of the City manager Christine Adams agrees that certified organic fruits and vegetables are, hands down, the best for you, yet she insists that even non-organic produce purchased from a farmer’s market is safer and tastier than supermarket-bought produce.
"The farmers may use pesticides, but they don’t overuse them," she explains. "They use them very sparingly. For instance, during the winter months, when bugs are dormant, most [of the farmers] don’t use any pesticides at all."
Adams knows what she’s talking about. She’s manned a produce stall at Heart of the City, which turned twenty-four last June, for three years before becoming market manager.
Lynn Bagley of the Golden Gate Farmers’ Market Association says cost is one of the reasons that smaller conventional farmers limit their use of pesticides.
"Small farmers can’t afford to use pesticides as a preventative measure," she says. "It’s very expensive to do so. So they only use [pesticides] if there’s a problem, which is much safer for the consumer and much better for the environment."
Your total comes to…
As with small farmers, cost is also an issue for many consumers. Come on, with the cost of living going through the roof, particularly in the Bay Area, who doesn’t want to save a few bucks? Well, more and more budget-conscious consumers are realizing that, in addition to the health benefits, there are also big savings to be had at farmer’s markets.
"On average, I’d say our prices are about one-third less than supermarket prices," says Christine Adams of the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market. "Some of it is comparable, like blueberries, for instance. It’s impossible to bring the price down because of the labor involved."
Just to put it in perspective for you, a farmer at the Marin Civic Center Farmer’s Market was recently selling organic tomatoes for $2.50 per pound. Safeway is charging $3.99 per pound for non-organic tomatoes. Non-organic nectarines were going for $1.50 per pound at another stall at the same market. Safeway is charging $1.99 per pound.
Non-organic red bell peppers were going for $1.50 per pound over at the Jack London Square Farmer’s Market, which locals recently voted the "Best Farmer’s Market in the East Bay." Safeway is charging $1.99 per pound.
Lynn Bagley says prices at Larkspur Farmer’s Market are generally comparable to the supermarkets: "But it seems like the majority of people who shop at Larkspur are more concerned with quality."
Even if the price is the same [as the supermarket], you’re still getting more for your money at a farmer’s market," adds Libbey McKendry, executive director of Benicia Main Street, which operates the thirteen-year-old Benicia Farmer’s Market. "What you’re paying for at a farmer’s market is freshness."
Taste for yourself
Freshness, it seems, is what farmer’s market regulars value most, with lower prices coming in a very close second. What is it about farm-fresh produce that has these heads-of-household getting up early on a Sunday morning to go the farmer’s market when they could be sleeping in late? It’s nutrition and, equally as important, taste.
Supermarket produce just doesn’t taste as good as farmer’s market produce. It also isn’t quite as good for you. That’s because it’s picked and shipped before its taste and nutrients have fully developed in order to ensure it survives the one-to-two-week trip to supermarkets across the country.
Farmer’s market produce, on the other hand, is allowed to fully ripen before it’s picked, and it usually arrives at nearby farmer’s markets within a day or two.
"I grew up on a farm in the [Sacramento-San Joaquin] delta," says Libbey McKendry of Benicia Main Street. "I’m telling you, pears and peaches and apricots, they need to be picked when they’re ripe, when the sugars are fully formed. They’re so much sweeter and juicier."
Christine Adams of the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market agrees: "The produce you buy at a farmer’s market definitely tastes better. I know, I sample all day long. And there’s no question that it’s better for you. [San Francisco] General Hospital teaches a class on healthy living for breast cancer patients and they bring the class to the farmer’s market to show them how to shop and eat for good health."
Going to market
Greg Beccio of Aromas, California-based Happy Boy Farms is one of hundreds of small, independent farmers who rely on sales generated at farmer’s markets to help support their businesses.
Beccio was one of the first farmers in the state to grow and sell the now-popular spring salad mix. His organic greens and vegetables can now be found at more than twenty farmer’s markets in the Bay Area, and Beccio estimates that farmer’s markets account for nearly a quarter of his overall sales. He also sells wholesale and directly to stores and restaurants.
Victor Martino of Denair, California-based BellaViva Orchards says that nearly all of his fresh fruit business is done at the Alemany Farmer’s Market and the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market. He also sells fresh fruit and dried fruit online.
Martino’s family was one of the first to sell at Alemany, and he remembers, as a kid, getting up early on Saturdays and driving into the city with his mother to sell freestone peaches from the family’s orchard. He still goes every Saturday, only now he takes his daughters Belle and Vivian, whom he re-named his business after when he expanded his family’s operation.
Both Beccio and Martino say that, even more than the money, the opportunity to meet and speak with the people who eat and enjoy their produce is what keeps them coming back to the farmer’s markets.
"That’s what it’s all about," Martino explains. "It’s that relationship between farmer and customer. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the look on someone’s face when they try our fruit. The big farmers who sell to the supermarkets, they don’t get to see that."
"Every [farmer] develops a special rapport with his/her local shoppers," adds Beccio. "[And] it’s those relationships that make working a market stand outdoors, and at ungodly hours, bearable and enjoyable."
Building community
Market managers and farmers agree there’s something special in the air at a farmer’s market. It’s a genuine sense of community, which they believe is largely absent from Americans’ increasingly insular lives.
"People just seem happier when they’re [at a farmer’s market]," explains Lynn Bagley of the Golden Gate Farmers’ Market Association. "They’re having a good time; they’re interacting with each other and with the farmers. When I do a walk-through, I’ll see people beaming in the aisles. And people comment all the time how friendly everyone is. I think that’s what keeps people coming back."
"It’s more than just shopping," adds Libbey McKendry of Benicia Main Street. "It’s a social opportunity. It’s a place for people to connect. We don’t get a lot of that in our day-to-day lives, and I think people miss that."
