Confession: I have never been to the farmers market. There, I said it. Well, I have never been unless you count the occasion last summer when my spouse and I took our 4-year-old nephew to a seasonal market located in the courtyard of a small neighborhood grocery, which I do not think qualifies. Of the few vendors present at the seasonal market, none were farmers, and the goods were items like locally-made breads or pastas, but included no produce.
The Charlotte Regional Farmers Market, operated by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, is open year-round Tuesday-Saturday, with Sunday hours during the summer months. The regional market is 8.6 miles from our house - a quick 15 minute drive. Public transportation could get us there if we were willing to travel one hour and 40 minutes (one way), including a 30 minute walk. We were not.
We visited the market on a recent Saturday morning in hopes of interacting with a maximum number of vendors. The grounds were spacious and included many large barn-like buildings as well as covered vendor areas outside. Parking was plentiful, and this time of year vendors were confined to just one building and one area outside. We were told that the market is packed wall-to-wall with people in the summer months.
In addition to buying local, our mission was to get to know some of the people who grow or make our food. While having produce options was a bonus, we hoped to find sources for items we have not been successful at finding locally thus far. I was hoping for local cheese. Currently we receive the majority of our produce from a local family-owned organic produce home delivery service. The year-round business is not a CSA, but sources as much locally grown produce as possible. The added benefit is that this service also provides a wide variety of organic produce like kiwis, oranges, and bananas, which are not grown in North Carolina. We are able to customize our list each week, which keeps us from receiving food that might be wasted otherwise. For example, I don’t do rutabaga. Chalk it up to childhood trauma.
Upon entering the building, the first vendor we met was the maker of No Kidding! goats milk soap from Davidson, NC. The packaging reads: When the daily grind of life “just gets your goat,” then just reach for that “No Kidding” bar of soap. With goats milk from a neighbor, this soft-spoken man crafts sweet smelling soaps, like almond, sage-cedarwood, lemongrass, and peppermint-rosemary-poppyseed, with a limited number of ingredients. We could not resist.
Next we met charming farmers, Shane and his wife Jill, of Poplin Farms in Albemarle, NC. They sell grass-fed beef, plants and herbs, and operate a CSA. We are vegetarians, but we purchased a delicious pie that Jill made with organic sweet potatoes they grew. Our next stop was for a discussion about chocolate (a favorite topic!) with Robin and Andy, who are opening The Secret Chocolatier. They shared the importance of making additive-free products, using fresh seasonal ingredients, and sourcing chocolate produced without pesticides or slave labor. With Valentine’s Day approaching, we purchased a couple of truffles, cinnamon and espresso, for the occasion. Then we met a young man named Pete, who grows and sells fresh herbs and dried herb blends. Pete had sold most of his fresh herbs earlier that morning, but we picked up a nice bundle of fresh cilantro. We added to our finds local eggs, fresh bread, lentils, sweet potatoes, and crabapple jelly. Yummy yum! We also noticed large vendors, who appeared to be produce distributors, selling nothing local. However, they provided more exotic selections like jicama, miniature eggplants, and some other items we did not recognize at all. Since our mission was really about connecting with the people who grew and made our food, we steered clear of the distributors.
All in all, we spent around $40.00, which is about what we would spend at the regional grocery chain on similar items. However, we were able to find items for which the grocery chain offers no equivalent. The one disappointment was that the only local cheese I found was goat cheese, which I can appreciate in small quantities. As peak season nears, I look forward to new discoveries and maintain hope that I will find more varieties of local cheese.
We have come to realize that the bulk store, where we have recently begun shopping, has terrible customer service. It is usually difficult to find assistance if you need it, and on an especially good day the cashier will acknowledge you with a grunt. The regional grocery chain where we shopped previously assures that everyone gets the same generic greeting and conversation in a peppy but sometimes less than authentic manner. By contrast, the farmers market connects you directly with the person who grew or made your food. These folks are engaged, interesting, and seem inclined to build genuine relationships with their customers. To us, it is the next best thing to making the food ourselves. More on that next time...
