Evolution of a Farmers market
We sometimes hear the words “this isn’t a farmers market” from our critics. That’s okay. We get it. Our farmers market looks different these days. I thought it might be good to give a bit of a history on how farmers markets have changed and evolved over the past 40 years and how our market, even though it looks different now than it did 3 years ago, is actually returning to its roots of serving the local farmer.
Many years ago there were outdoor marketplaces where people would bring their wares to sell them on any given day. We see these depicted in old movies and such. They have farmers with fresh produce in horse drawn carts, fishmongers, butchers with their chickens and large meat pieces hanging in the open air with no refrigeration or pest control. There were also tinsmiths, and other artisans and you even sometimes saw the “junk” dealers that collected what others didn’t want and resold them. As modern farming came into existence and we realized that refrigeration of meat was helpful, farmers markets became more about a farmer filling the bed of his pickup truck and driving into town a few times a week to either a designated marketplace, or just sitting on the side of the road. They might bring some eggs and other things people might want to buy, but mostly it was whatever produce they picked out of the garden that day. Even as a child I remember these people being set up on different days around town and I remember there wasn’t much produce in a grocery store, especially international produce, like there is now.
Then laws were changed and it was easier for grocery stores to get large amounts of out of season produce from other countries and areas. We could have items like tomatoes and watermelons and peaches year round! It was so nice. However, we must ask ourselves at what cost?
Because of this shift, it got harder for the small farmer to compete. This was especially true if there was a tough year with the weather or a crop failure. Some of these farmers started supplementing with this easily gotten out of season and out of area produce. As our nation became more comfortable with a global food chain, its people became more disconnected with their food. We started to become a nation that no longer knew anything about food, where it came from and what it took to get there. We quit asking questions and as long as we could eat whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, it was ok. Does anyone know how many pounds of bacon they eat a month vs how many pounds are actually produced by a farm-raised pig? Does it matter how or where that produce was grown as long as I buy it? We stopped asking questions and talking with farmers. So farmers gave us what we wanted, even if it meant it wasn’t grown by their own hands. Most of the time, we couldn’t or didn’t care to tell the difference.
And then people started waking up and realizing that our health was seriously declining and our kids didn’t know that a potato produced French fries and we started asking questions. People started turning to shopping at farmers markets again so they could regain a connection with their food only to find that a lot of the local farmers were no longer growing. They had sold their farms or greatly reduced them and supplemented with what could be gotten at the grocery store. So some people started growing their own food. Others just continued to buy food at the grocery store. Some continued to shop at open air markets, often thinking they were getting something different than what was available at the store. Sometimes that was true and sometimes it wasn’t. Farmers markets started changing and reverting back to the old model where farmers and artisans sold in one marketplace. They started prioritizing local again. This meant rules and guidelines and management. These markets became popular in large urban areas especially and appealed to people looking for truly fresh food and wanting to have a conversation with the farmers.
And then in 2020 everyone’s priorities started changing again.
In 2020 Palestine, Texas and surrounding areas saw grocery store shelves wiped clean. No meat, eggs, dairy, toilet paper, even produce was sometimes hard to get. We realized that the global food system wouldn’t serve us. We saw people ditch their apartments for acreage with younger families wanting to build a homestead and older retired people returning to “their roots” which meant having a garden of some sort. The Palestine Farmers Market, at that time, didn’t have many farmers selling at it. They didn’t have a lot of people coming there. In 2021 that conversation changed and we believe is coming full circle.
In 2021 the Palestine Farmers Market embraced the old model of a local marketplace that we started off describing at the beginning. Regular weekly events where local farmers and artisans came to the marketplace to sell their wares started happening again. On any given Saturday during the season, the market is host to a variety of farmers. In 2020 all that was available was produce and it wasn’t necessarily local all the time. Since 2021 the market now has farmers selling produce, meat, eggs, hemp products, plant starts, and more. Each farm is vetted with a farm inspection so we know that the food chain is local, just like it was 40+ years ago.
You can now come to the market and talk to a farmer about how they raise their chickens, vegetables, hemp, etc. You can buy locally made gifts from artisans who are passionate about what they do. The beauty of our modern times, is that you can also shop at other stores that offer the international produce and mass market decorations as well. There is no judgment, just more choices and more opportunities.