Farmers Markets Are Sprouting Up Across The Region

By Debra McCown
Published: May 18, 2008

BY DEBRA McCOWN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

ABINGDON, Va. – On opening day last year, Kelli Mehls and her family made $48 selling homemade canned goods at the Abingdon Farmers Market.
This year, they were the first to begin in the new market pavilion, and they added baked goods. By 11 a.m. that day, they were nearly sold out and had made $550.
“We hope eventually to make it our living doing just this,” Mehl said. “The farmers market gives us a great outlet because where we’re located out in Mendota ... where we’re out of the way, this gives us a more central outlet to be able to sell our stuff.”
Mehl isn’t the only one touting success at the market; pavilion manager Darnell Sumrell said sales have increased for everyone this year.
And Abingdon is not the only place.
New markets are sprouting up around the region in a growing trend organizers say is key not only to the success of farmers, but to regional economic development.
Some say farmers markets are a chance to bring back something that’s been on the wane for decades – Main Street.
“This is not just about the farmers market; it’s about pulling our community together, forming a place that everybody meets on Saturday,” said Melissa Dickenson, who started a market in Glade Spring, Va. “We want to bring some excitement back to the town, kind of like it was in the old days.”
Dickenson said she has coordinated with others in the community of about 1,500 people to plan events that coincide with market day – everything from health checks and a quilt exhibit to making apple-butter and a summer festival highlighting the town’s railroad history.
She said she wants her 3-year-old daughter to grow up with pride in her community, and as gas prices rise, have community-centered activities close to home.
“You’re supporting your community when you come to a farmers market. You’re pumping money back into your community and back into your farms,” Dickenson said.
“By also pulling these people down here for this farmers market, we’re encouraging them to spend their money in the town square and then hopefully bring other businesses to the town square.”
Small town leaders, like in Glade Spring, hope that by giving people a reason to come downtown, they can revive old town squares that once were bustling with commerce and crowded sidewalks but have fallen into disrepair in more recent decades.
In Bristol, Tenn., State Street Farmers Market Administrator Terrie Talbert said such success is already happening, and the market has been an important part of the effort.
“That was one of the key components of the downtown redevelopment in 1999,” Talbert said. “It draws people downtown that otherwise may not be there on Saturday mornings and Wednesday mornings.”
She said other activities like concerts followed the market’s construction, and these and other activities are feeding off one another to encourage business growth in downtown Bristol.
And that’s not just the case in Bristol, where Talbert says the farmers market draws as many as 1,000 people on a typical Saturday. Across the nation, the number of markets has increased dramatically in the last decade.
Now, she says, the trend is spreading from cities to smaller communities.
Growing markets
Elizabethton, Tenn., started a market last year and Big Stone Gap, Va., and Jonesborough, Tenn., are opening them for the first time this year.
The trend also has reached a regional milestone this year with formation of the Appalachian Farmers’ Market Association to promote area markets and help new ones get started.
“Some members of the Abingdon Farmers Market and members of the Bristol Farmers Market got together to plan a conference, and out of planning the conference came this idea of creating an area-wide association of farmers markets,” said Tom Peterson, who’s involved with the organization. “We’re just hoping we can get some seed money to get it going.”
Peterson said the group is open to any market that wants to start up – and it has applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help the local operations with promotion and advertising.
“I don’t know why now is the time. It just seems things came together,” Peterson said. “I think it’s mirroring national and regional trends, and more and more people are looking to farmers markets for fresh food, but also as a kind of community gathering place.”
In Abingdon, where the market is in its seventh season, the pavilion built last year already is at capacity and organizers say they may have to start sending vendors elsewhere.
“They’re wanting to discuss whether or not there might be alternate locations around the farmers market facility for additional vendors,” said Abingdon Town Manager Greg Kelly. “The fact that it’s at capacity right now ought to be a testament to the success of the facility.”
Family farm support
David King, manager of the Abingdon market said it helps keep farmers farming.
“It allows the small family farmers to have a better chance of making a good living, of being on the farm with their families because we can get better prices here than selling wholesale,” King said. “We can bring heirloom varieties here, where we can have a devoted following or clientele ... for the unique products that we can bring.”
Thomas Hawthorne, who lives south of Chilhowie, said farmers market sales make up a significant portion of his family’s income.
“It’s been a big help,” Hawthorne said. “It’s been a good outlet for small growers that just want something to supplement their income. ... It’s been a tremendous help to the farmers after they quit growing tobacco.”
For some vendors, selling at the markets has been a way to ease the transition from tobacco since the 2005 buyout of the federal subsidy program for what used to be an economic staple for the region.
“We started growing vegetables when the tobacco market started falling off,” said Mark McCracken. “We sell at Bristol and Abingdon.”
Between sales of vegetables and beef, McCracken said he’s been able to make up for lost tobacco income. Selling at the markets also helps him find customers for his meat products.
“There’s a lot of people come through here. ... They want to buy it off the farm, too,” McCracken said. “No matter how big or small a farm is, the farmers’ market helps get your name out there.”
McCracken said the markets will play a big role, especially for small farms, to keep agriculture going in the region.
“We don’t want to give up on our land; it’s something we’ve had all of our lives,” he said. “It’s both a farm and a way of life.”
Land-use plan
Keeping farmland in production – and preserving the region’s rural character – is also a goal of the market, said Outreach Coordinator Lucee Kossler.
“If you don’t keep money in the farmers’ pockets, they’re going to sell that land to developers,” Kossler said. “I see it every day.”
Talbert said a consciousness of the situation is one of several factors bringing people to farmers markets to shop.
“When the farmers started losing their farms, people started to pay attention,” Talbert said. “I think people started to realize ... that the local farmers were important to the economy and important to the food chain ... then there was the other factor of food safety, and now there is the factor of cost [driven by rising gas prices].”
She said farmers markets have existed in parking lots around Bristol for decades, but local government involvement gives the market stability and access to promotional dollars.
Fresh and healthy
While each market has its own rules, she said State Street vendors must live within a 50-mile radius and raise the items they sell. She said the requirements helps draw people who want a local connection to their food or who simply want fresher produce.
“If you’ve ever had an ear of corn that you just picked out of the garden and took it to the kitchen and boiled it, versus going to the grocery store and getting something that’s been there three or four days ... there’s just a fresher taste,” Talbert said. “It’s as fresh as you can get other than having your own backyard garden.”
While not all the produce sold at the markets is organic, some growers say they try to limit the use of chemicals, and small-scale, local, seasonal production makes that possible.
It also allows them to grow plant varieties for their flavor rather than for how well they ship – meaning fruits and vegetables are not only fresher, but tastier.
They say an increasingly health-conscious society is also a factor in the choice of locally grown produce over food from afar.
Louis Watson, a former tobacco farmer who lives near South Holston Lake and sells plants and produce at the farmers market, said he remembers when everyone expected to eat food in season – and it wasn’t that long ago.
“I’d say only more like up in the 70s and 80s, people got to think they could get anything in the grocery store any time you want it,” Watson said. “[Before that] they were more or less ... eating off the farm instead of in stores.”
Now, with the growth of farmers markets, it appears the trend is coming back home.
“We’re at the point where we’re getting our vegetables from Brazil and South America, and we’re one of the agriculturally richest countries in the world,” said John Swygert, as he shopped recently at the Abingdon Farmers’ Market. “We’ve grown up in this area basically, and we’re used to seeing the old farmers come out ... and this is as close as we can get to that, supporting the craftsmen and farmers.”

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