[basil_hayden]

Farmer's Markets - What's up with these?

I'd like to pass along my recent experiences here in Connecticut and get an idea if it's any better anywhere else.

First off, I truly want to support the local grower. I live in a rural area and know some of these folks.

But I must say, they're more expensive than Whole Foods. I don't understand how this could be, with middle man elimination.

50 cents for an ear of corn? Same as Whole Foods. Corn was 12 for a buck when I was a kid, and the corn here does not go to the ethanol factory like it does in the midwest, although it does feed cattle and dairy I'm sure.

2 bucks for a pound of green beans? You have to be kidding.

All the boutique eggs - $5 for a half dozen? Utterly ridiculous.

The best deals I've found so far are the finished products - such as maple peanut brittle for example, or the organic, natural food concessionaires such as awesome grilled cheese sandwiches made from local artisanal cheese and bread.

But the individual fruits and vegetables are priced out of this world.

And don't tell me it really cost this much to produce when I know they're selling it to Whole Foods for less.

What's your take? Not a Farmer's Market but a Yuppie's Market?

[Ferretlover]

Don't know the reason for the high prices; but, these days, everything is "Artesian."
Maybe it is the fuel that they use to plant, harvest and bring-to-market the crops?
Time to grow your own?

[Alan Cain]

The farmers' markets I see are the Seattle ones; they take place on certain days in very popular venues like Ballard, and seem to be entertainment as much as food sources. They offer some fruits and vegetables, many of which are "locally" grown (as in near Seattle),and offer more in the ways of crafts and not-so-fast foods such as wood fired oven pizza (tasty, but not cheap), and little stuffed donut things with bacon and butter (not low calories foods) inside some, and salmon in others, berries in yet others (yum - need to eat). I did score a wonderful triple beam scale for 20 bucks at one of the fence booths (I snark - I apologize). It came from a high school that was shutting down their laboratory sciences program, since lab sciences are expensive to teach well. At least the markets are a venue, and are entertaining, and get people out of their cars; they are year round in Seattle, even in the cold rains of winter, but cheap? Not so much. Not totally expensive and some stands are reasonable.

In a slightly different but not very much so way, the Walla Walla farmers' market had more veggies, cheeses, honies (bee and beauties) and breads than the big city version. It was less expensive, too.They both bring more variety into the urban landscape which is a good thing.

Yuppies, yes. The pricing certainly reflects the notion that people who want quality in their lives think they have to pay more for it, and are willing to do so. I don't think that necessarily has to be coupled; quality is an attitude of production.

[dinopello]

Our farmer's markets are no bargain, but not nearly that expensive!

I do tend to regularly buy the value-added products though as they offer the most uniqueness and value. For example, there is this guy that does his own pickles and pickled stuff and he has at least halfdozen varieties and usually more. I love pickled anything. I've eaten a whole quart of his pickles in two days...

[Expatriot]

1. You live in CT.
2. CT land prices are ridiculous. 36 acres in CT in Enfield in 2 million.
3. Taxes in CT are ridiculous.
4. Prices in general in CT are ridiculous.
5. Farmer lives in CT and pays for the land, the state rent, the income and sales taxes, and the other higher costs of living in (one of) the richest state in the union.

What do you expect?

A dozen ears of corn here in western PA is 3 bucks.

Of course, the land around me typically goes for 2-4 grand an acre, and you could get 20 acres for under 2 grand a year rent from the state, so . . . .

[Sixstrings]

Huh I guess I'm the exception. Farmers market I go to is run by Spanish speaking migrants. I don't know if they're legal or not, but hey they're working hard and selling produce for a good price and no bad attitude.

I can't remember exact prices, I buy cauliflower and broccoli I think those are cheaper than Walmart.

To the OP, what you're running into is the iPhone effect.. you're paying for the sizzle rather than the steak.. farmer's markets are fashionable, and you pay a premium for being in fashion. Just as Whole Foods is so darn expensive.. this green living just ain't in the average Joe's budget.

Try to find an illegal immigrant farmers market, you'll get good prices without all the BS.

[basil_hayden]

1. You live in CT.
2. CT land prices are ridiculous. 36 acres in CT in Enfield in 2 million.
3. Taxes in CT are ridiculous.
4. Prices in general in CT are ridiculous.
5. Farmer lives in CT and pays for the land, the state rent, the income and sales taxes, and the other higher costs of living in (one of) the richest state in the union.

What do you expect?

A dozen ears of corn here in western PA is 3 bucks.

Of course, the land around me typically goes for 2-4 grand an acre, and you could get 20 acres for under 2 grand a year rent from the state, so . . . .

Of course you're correct about expensive Connecticut, but this fails to explain why the same berries from the same farm cost the same or more at the Farmers' Market than they do at expensive Whole Foods.

The upside to expensive land is that it holds its value which did not crash like Vegas or Miami did.

Six - I hear ya, but the migrants work at these farms and many of the illegals were swept up in a recent raid, so finding their market might be tough right now.

I guess Alan confirms my conclusion that Farmer's Markets are indeed Yuppie's Markets here.

Ferret - I do grow some of my own food and tend to buy stuff I don't produce, like maple syrup or eggs. And I caught your drift about the non-peak oil theme post, but if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[peeker01]

Since I came to this board everybody has sung the praises of "local food". No transportation
costs, no inorganic fertilizer. Now what? Corn here is a buck an ear. I don't buy it.

[Sixstrings]

Since I came to this board everybody has sung the praises of "local food". No transportation
costs, no inorganic fertilizer. Now what? Corn here is a buck an ear. I don't buy it.

That's exaggerating. I'm sure there's a Walmart where you live, corn is 33 cents an ear there. (I think.. hard to keep up with prices in this Weimar commodity thing going on )

[peeker01]

Nope. At Costco and at Safeway, last week. This site teaches me not to go to WalMart.

[Ferretlover]

Off topic posts deleted; keep it clean, please.

[misterno]

I am in Houston and there is only 1 real farmers market here. Since there is no agriculture in or around Houston most stuff comes from far. Some as far as 40 miles.

1 small box of green beans $4
1 big box of peaches (7 small) $5
1 dozen eggs depending on the day $4-5-6
rotten eggplant $3/lbs
semi rotten mustard $4/piece

Nothingelse.

Once, one of the egg sellers finished all the eggs, so 20 people on the line moved to the other seller only to see that he jacked up the price to $6 because there was no other seller

I mean c'ommon, wholefoods have certified best eggs (brand name Vital) $5-6/dz

farmers markets are a rip off. So I stopped going there

Can you imagine selling eggs $6/dz with 20 people waiting on the line everytime I go there. no receipt no register, I mean this is big money considering they pay no tax.

[dohboi]

You guys need better farmers or better markets.

Around here, there are farmers markets in one neighborhood or other open every day. Most have reasonable prices and a bit of a festive atmosphere. You get to look the person that grew your food in the eye, and that is a rare treasure in this world of 2000 mile lettuce.

It's too late in the evening for me to look it up, but a study was done of community sponsored agriculture that found that people end up getting the equivalent of half the price of grocery store produce, and generally much higher quality.

But ultimately it is the connection with the grower that is the prime value.

(But if, as generally seems to be the case around here, people are just looking for an excuse to get snarky about something, here's a nice little musical British satire on overpriced and low quality farmers markets--not my experience, but there you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw_orOZ0OV0)

Back in the real world, here's a picture from our local market:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=midtown+farmers+market+minneapolis&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1378&bih=623&tbm=isch&tbnid=4ol7PuCMs1fLbM:&imgrefurl=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/02/district-farmers-market/&docid=Uz0eCQW2K05izM&w=650&h=450&ei=pr9VTpLiJ8HZgAeBoJQu&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=296&vpy=101&dur=4755&hovh=187&hovw=270&tx=110&ty=85&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=195&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

[Loki]

You all sound like spoiled brat consumers who don't know the real cost of food. Spend a few hours picking green beans by hand and tell me they're not worth $2/lb. But most of you are useless paper pushers who think your pencil sharpening skills are worth $50k/yr.

Nice advice Six, using illegals for cheap food while regularly railing against the loss of American jobs The word hypocrite suddenly jumped to mind, don't know why.....

[dsula]

farmers markets are a rip off. So I stopped going there
.

Hey if it's such a rip-off I suggest you open up a booth at your local farmer's market. I'm sure you be able to undercut everybody else and make a killing.
OR.. you might just be taught a lesson in how little money one makes at the market compared to the efforts of preparing, driving, installing, sitting there for hours, taking stuff down, cleaning it, putting it away. And adding the market fee and the required insurance don't help either.

But wait, this sounds like work, right. And me not like work, right? Me like welfare and chinese and mexicans workers to do the job for me for cheap, right?

[basil_hayden]

You all sound like spoiled brat consumers who don't know the real cost of food. Spend a few hours picking green beans by hand and tell me they're not worth $2/lb. But most of you are useless paper pushers who think your pencil sharpening skills are worth $50k/yr.

Nice advice Six, using illegals for cheap food while regularly railing against the loss of American jobs The word hypocrite suddenly jumped to mind, don't know why.....

Loki I thought I was trying to be sensitive to farm workers as I've been one. To be honest I could pick a pound of green beans in about 1 minute. Think you're worth $120 an hour? Because that's alot more than I get paid. Sure, there's seeds, fertilizer, planting and other farm chores and input expenses to get those beans, but I'd bet you're still at $50 an hour to pick beans, which frankly is overpriced.

[Alan Cain]

You all sound like spoiled brat consumers who don't know the real cost of food. Spend a few hours picking green beans by hand and tell me they're not worth $2/lb. But most of you are useless paper pushers who think your pencil sharpening skills are worth $50k/yr.

Owwww.... it hurts so much!!

But let me be the first to say that the green beans are not worth $2.00 per pound, regardless of who picks them. Nutritional return is not that high, and anyone who cannot pick way more than ten pounds of green beans an hour (adjusted to give 20.00 per hour gross profit, and allowing for 12.00 of profit, taxes and distribution costs leaving 8.00 per hour) should consider some (any) other career, especially one of those 50K jobs (25.00 an hour, eh?).

Actually, I spend a great deal of time in my garden, which we have come to depend on for a very significant part of our food supply. I have spent a lot more time than a few hours picking green beans by hand (and who wants an automated harvester in one's garden, anyway?? - I do have raccoons which serve that function nicely). My concern this year is our very long cold spring, followed by drought and hot days and nights, that has led to a poor and delayed production. I was intending to dry and can a kilocrap-load (a quantity equal to 9 months of serious consumption) of tomatoes this year, and putting away several bushels of onions. The onion yield is about 1/10th of expected, as are the tomatoes.

We have turkeys in our yard every day, here, and this morning I watched the turkeys and raccoons arguing over the bird feeder spoils, since the birds higher up push the cherries and peanuts out of the feeder. Took some cool pictures with my uber-high tek iPhone; I was pondering how low a velocity pellet gun I could use to plug one of those turkeys (quietly), while wiping saliva from my beard hairs. I have GOT to eat earlier in the day, but wild young birds do have a fine flavor...

We all sound like brat consumers because we ARE brats (at least some of us) and we are ALL consumers. Walmart (the standard for cheap) is not so cheap this year; prices seem about double there when I go in (which isn't very often, but I live in a very rural area in the upper Sonoran desert, and our choices are limited - a Safeway, a semi-independent Harvest Foods, and a scattering of gas convenience stores within 50 miles - and the first traffic light is 55 miles away). The Safeway prices are up enormously (my number is about 1.7 times last year's costs) as are the other store's prices. My garden is important to me.

This is a significant peak oil issue, because I suspect there are going to be a LOT of folks who depend on their gardens ever more for sustenance and for pleasure. No land? No yard? I would suggest you move. There are several books out there suggesting you can have an acre and independence; that will be an individual thing for sure, and gardening for real is a high skill, high effort enterprise requiring dedication, effort and a few bad harvests. Still, $2.00 per pound? Yuppie swine.

[Sixstrings]

Nice advice Six, using illegals for cheap food while regularly railing against the loss of American jobs The word hypocrite suddenly jumped to mind, don't know why.....

Yeah, and the computer I'm typing this message on was made in China. Did you hear about the new MLK monument? It was made in China.

How about Obama's new bus? Made in Canada.

San Francisco is working on a new bridge, guess who is building it.. China.

No matter where I buy veggies in my town, whether it's Walmart or the grocery store or the farmers market, it was all picked by latinos. What should I do Loki, never use a computer again or watch TV ever again or touch nothing that's plastic since that's all made in China? I guess I can't wear clothes either, it's all made in Honduras or China or anywhere but here. I think it's a lost battle Loki.. one would have to live naked and hungry under a rock to avoid foreign-made goods.

Even though I firmly believe outsourcing and immigrant insourcing has wrecked our Republic, they're here now and have been for a long time and are a part of the community.. they are human beings I'm not a racist.. they're nice people I have nothing personally against them so if the US is going to hell in a handbasket anyway I may as well shop at their farmer's market..

[Pops]

Man, what a cop out is this thread!

You can have it one of two ways, pay the local guy a living wage by depriving yourself of a latté or continue to support the race-to-the-end-o-world decried in every other thread on the site.

pfft, I might as well change my new sig line, no one is gonna buy a pitchfork and hit the street, pitchforks cost too much and they'd cut into the potato chip budget - besides walmart doesn't carry them.

[peeker01]

The problem with growing vegetables in Connecticut is the short growing season. If the farmer
is trying to make a 12 month living in a 4 month growing season, a "living wage" can become
quite expensive. That's why our country has decided that growing produce in California
and Arizona year around is such a good deal. It's fun to see my fellow PO participants learn
the beneficial economics of corporate farming in real time.