Every summer over 10,000 people visit Old Monterey Marketplace on Alvarado Street.
© Joyce McGreevy

How an American Custom Keeps Evolving

 It’s time for a field trip! Today marks the start of National Farmers Market Week, so grab your reusable cloth bags and let’s go see what’s in season. We’ve got energy to spare, thanks to all the organic fruit and vegetables we’ve been enjoying this summer.

Free samples? Yes, please.
© Joyce McGreevy

Farmers markets in the United States are a time-honored American custom. If you’ve ever visited Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the site that started it all, you probably admired its Romanesque Revival market house. But that’s just the “new” building—added in 1889. The original opened in 1730.

Lancaster Central Market is America’s oldest farmers market.

Other markets soon followed. In Alexandria, Virginia, some of George Washington’s Mount Vernon crops landed in buyers’ baskets. In 1779, Soulard’s Farmer’s Market opened up west of the Mississippi in St. Louis. On August 17, 1907, the day that Pike’s Place Market opened in Seattle, crowds were so massive that produce sold out in minutes.

The roots of farmers markets run deep. 
© Joyce McGreevy

A Market Crash

But by the 1940s, American farmers markets were as rare as hen’s teeth. What upset the apple cart?

Progress.

As Americans became car drivers and followed the new interstate highway system out of the cities and into sprawling suburbs, the distance between farm-raised food and buyers widened. “Convenience foods” went from novelty to so-called necessity as big factories sent big trucks to bigger and bigger supermarkets.

By the ’40s, supermarkets like this one in Washington, DC had changed the American diet.
© Joyce McGreevy

The number of farmers markets plummeted.

Despite a rekindling of interest during WWII, a national renaissance was slow in coming. In 1970, only 340 farmers markets remained, many of them operated by resellers, not growers.

Back to the Land—and the Farm Stand

And the beet goes on . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

But the ‘70s also sparked new interest in healthy eating. The ‘70s economic recession “helped” too, nudging shoppers away from costly convenience foods to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables.

As farmers markets sprouted up nationwide, the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 fertilized the soil: numerous states enacted regulations that shortened the distance from farmer’s field to kitchen table.

At farmers markets, consumers can buy the freshest produce possible.
© Joyce McGreevy

Over the next 15 years, the number of farmers markets increased by as much as 500 percent in some states. Today, nearly 9,000 farmers markets are flourishing across the U.S.

Eggplant and peppers and herbs, oh buy!
© Joyce McGreevy

Getting Fresh

What do we love about farmers markets? To start with the obvious, there’s the food. Berries and stone fruit with flavors so rich they not only register on the tongue but also evoke sweet memories. Lettuce that isn’t packing material. Today’s “greens” offer a rainbow of colors and hundreds of tasty varieties.

Gather ye seasonal peaches while ye may. 
© Joyce McGreevy

And oh, those names. There’s poetry, history, and more in heirloom tomato varieties like Dagma’s Perfection, Green Zebra, Brandywine, Abraham Lincoln, Paul Robeson, Mortgage Lifter, and Banana Legs.

There’s beauty in the colors and shapes, too, a beauty that wears the odd blemish or nick with pride. That’s what happens when tomatoes have been ripened in the field, not gassed while green and “packed to stack.” Sure, you can count on supermarkets for tomatoes that look as uniform as ping-pong balls. The trouble is, they have about as much taste.

Real tomatoes don’t wear uniforms.
© Joyce McGreevy

Getting Social

We also go to farmers markets for the human interaction. At a time when everything can be ordered online, visiting your local farmers market has become an everyday travel experience. Destination: The Land of the Living.

Three out of four farmers who sell at farmers markets use practices
that meet or exceed organic standards.
© Joyce McGreevy

People who study these things have reported that folks who shop at farmers markets have 15-20 social interactions per visit compared to 1-2 interactions at supermarkets.

Three generations of the Tao family have planted produce by hand at P&K Farms.
© Joyce McGreevy

For me, that’s the “oh I see” moment: Farmers markets not only offer you fresh, organic produce, but a fresh, organic perspective on community.

Keauhou Farmers Market on the Big Island offers native Hawaiian Mamaki tea, seafood,
organic pineapples, macadamia nuts, and more. 
© John McGreevy/Molly McGreevy

Getting More Connected

Farmers markets grow local jobs and feed money back into local communities. They are also becoming accessible to more of the people who make up a community.

A growing number of farmers markets take place on college campuses, in hospital parking lots, and outside office buildings.  Thousands of farmers markets now accept SNAP benefits and other nutrition-program vouchers. And as Civil Eats reports, the range of cultures represented among vendors, customers, and foods is slowly broadening.

Chicago’s Daley Plaza Farmers Market comes with a view of
a Picasso and classic skyscrapers.
© Joyce McGreevy

Increasingly, farmers markets—and farms—are coming to “food deserts,” communities with severely limited access to grocery stores.  In recent years, nonprofits all over the U.S. have sent mobile farmers markets into underserved counties. Meanwhile, organizations like GrowNYC, and Chicago’s Growing Home are establishing farms and markets in city neighborhoods.

It would be wishful thinking to say that farmers markets have fully evolved to reflect all of America. But the seeds are growing.

Get Going!

Over time, cooking demos, walking tours, and other events have become features of this American custom.  Technology has taken its place, too. Among the fresh offerings during this year’s National Farmers Market Week is a #LoveMyMarket photo contest on Instagram.

Santa Fe Farmers Market, New Mexico, has great live music. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Meanwhile, live music at markets still favors the old-timey. My unscientific survey suggests that string bands rule. So rosin up the bow, grab your gingham cloth bags, your digital camera, your “I Heart Farmers Markets” tattoo, and let’s get going!

Pick up snap peas and snap up some sweet peas. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Which farmers markets have you visited? Find your nearest market here.

Another staple of farmers markets: Little kids being adorable. Enjoy.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.