Birth Of A Farmers' Market

In Business, July-August, 2004, Vol. 26, No. 4, p. 10

It was a beautiful midsummer morning. Curious area residents began trickling into the open air market. And they just kept coming, with their spouses, friends and neighbors, children of all ages. And they're still coming on Sundays between 10 am and 2 pm.

George DeVault

SOME CALL IT an “overnight sensation”, but the new producer-only farmers' market in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, was really about 15 years in the making. Maybe that's why everyone was so nervous on opening day last year.
“What is going to happen?” all 15 farmers wondered. They were suffering from opening day jitters that tie stomachs in knots and trouble your sleep. “Will anyone show up? If they do, will they buy anything? Or will we have to haul all of our produce back home?”
Local officials and business leaders were plenty nervous, too. They had good reason to be. After all, they had spent months and thousands of dollars planning and publicizing the new market. They had market posters in all of the store windows downtown. A huge banner announcing the market was hung across Main Street weeks ago. More than 18,000 vehicles pass beneath it every day. But would that be enough?
WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?
Everyone was about to find out. It was 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 13, 2003. The market was scheduled to open in just 30 minutes. A wrecker quickly towed away a car that had been illegally parked at the market site. The last vendor maneuvered his truck into the empty space, and hastily began setting up his produce display.
It was a beautiful midsummer morning. And, whether vendors were ready or not, curious area residents began trickling into the open air market. And they just kept coming, with their spouses, friends and neighbors, children of all ages and even a few dogs on leashes.
They kept walking - and hungrily gawking - at mounds of farm-fresh sweet corn, peaches and tomatoes, neat rows of boxes filled with blueberries, baby potatoes, vine-ripened tomatoes, green beans, and bouquets of fresh-cut flowers. Not only was there fresh garlic, one farmer had garlic-on-a-stick and garlic vinegar. Another farm offered 15 different varieties of potatoes. There were lamb and buffalo burgers, Asian pears and unique apple varieties, honey, apple butter, potted perennials, annuals and herbs, Asiatic lilies, homemade breads, muffins, jams, jellies and granolas.
When 10 o'clock rolled around, the market was packed. But people just kept coming. Usually, the downtown sidewalks are empty on Sunday morning. Today, they were full.
“We have a walkable community here,” explained Joyce Marin, a Borough Council member who was the leading force for a farmers' market in Emmaus for five years. “You can get anything you need within a 10-minute walk downtown, except for fresh vegetables. This will meet that need. It's an idea that makes perfect sense. People in town would love a farmers' market because they wouldn't have to leave town.” At least that's what she had been telling Emmaus residents, the newspapers and business leaders for months. In a few minutes, she would find out if her hunch was right.
So far, it was looking good. The walkers kept coming. Not a parking space was to be found along Main Street, either - for two blocks on either side of the market in the parking lot of the Keystone-Nazareth Bank and Trust. The ribbon was cut. The market officially opened. And virtually all of the gawkers became instant buyers.
“The Flower Ladies” (my wife, Melanie DeVault, and her friend Linda Essert-Kuchar) thought they had brought more than enough flowers to market. But by 11 a.m., all of their flower buckets and tables were empty! The market runs until 2 p.m. “Guess we'll have to get here earlier next week,” one woman said, looking forlornly at the empty display.
It was the same from one end of the market to the other. Vendors couldn't refill their tables or unload the extra crates from their trucks fast enough. It was an absolute feeding frenzy. Police conservatively estimated the size of the crowd at 1,500 to 2,000. Not a bad turn out, all agreed, for a sleepy little Pennsylvania town with barely 11,000 residents. Not bad at all.
LIKE A GIANT HOMECOMING
They likened it to a giant homecoming, a reunion or community carnival. People were waving, smiling, yelling “Hello,” shaking hands and hugging old friends, neighbors and relatives whom they hadn't seen in months or even years.
Before the market opened, fruit grower Keith Hausman also thought he had maybe brought way too much to market. He had two haywagons piled high with produce: sweet corn, tomatoes, peaches, blueberries and scores of homemade pies, all of which were baked by his wife and daughter. His son, Justin, had towed the wagons from the family farm all the way into town behind an old John Deere tractor. Parked along the sidewalk at the front entrance to the market, the faded green and gold tractor drew customers like a magnet.
Hausman soon knew the truth of the ancient greengrocer's proverb: “Pile it high and watch it fly!” He was cleaned out in no time.
And what started out that morning as worried looks on the farmers' faces soon turned into silly grins. The farmers just couldn't stop smiling.
“They fell into an ideal situation,” observed John Berry, Lehigh County Extension marketing expert. Emmaus is lucky, he said, because it has an active, supportive community and willing farmers, the two keys to success for any farmers' market.
“The right people in the right place at the right time,” opined Teri Madison, executive director of the Emmaus Main Street Program.
“Next week, I'm going to bring twice as much,” said vegetable grower Mike Ahlert. Other vendors said they would do the same. They all did, but it still wasn't enough. The crowd swelled to an estimated 3,000. And, even though they brought twice as many bouquets, The Flower Ladies still sold out by 11 o'clock.
The crowd was smaller on the third Sunday at the market. Business was down somewhat. But it still wasn't bad, considering the competition that day from a huge antique car show in a neighboring town, three music festivals and the threat of severe thunderstorms. Soon, market organizers began asking vendors if they would consider adding a second day to the market. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday afternoon or evening? Customers began to have questions, too. What are we going to do when the market closes in late October? Can't you stay open longer?
In response, the market opened the 2004 season on June 13, a whole month earlier than the first year. It also offered more vendors, including certified organic vegetables, organic pastured poultry, more baked goods, fresh peanut butter and goat cheese. There is a waiting list of area producers who want to join the market.
Americans, it seems, are hungry - starving, almost - for fresh, tasty food and the lush beauty and intoxicating fragrance of fresh-cut flower bouquets that last for a week to 10 days. In this increasingly impersonal age of mass marketing, they are also hungry for the renewed social contact that comes with a farmers' market. Unlike the usual fare in the supermarket, this is food with the farmer's face on it. Shoppers know where it was grown, when it was picked, who grew it and how.
MORE THAN 3,100 FARMERS' MARKETS
All of that may explain why the number of farmers' markets in the United States now stands at more than 3,100 today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports. From just 1994 to 2002, the number of farmers' markets increased 79 percent. Nationwide, more than 19,000 farmers are now selling their produce only at farmers' markets.
Why the big increase? Simple economics. Instead of the 19 percent of the food dollar that USDA says American farmers receive on average, direct marketing at farmers' markets allows farmers to pocket the entire food dollar. (The farmer's share of the food dollar was 30 percent as recently as 1990.)
Where does the rest of the food dollar go for most farmers? To pay what USDA calls the “marketing bill.” That is the cost of labor, packaging, transportation, energy, profits, advertising and other expenses involved in getting food from farm to table.
“The estimated bill for marketing domestic farm foods - which does not include imported foods - was $498 billion in 1999,” reports USDA's Agriculture Fact Book, 2001-2002. “These rising costs have been the principal factor affecting the rise in consumer food expenditures. From 1990 to 2000, consumer expenditures for farm foods rose $211 billion. Roughly 92 percent of this increase resulted from an increase in the marketing bill.”
According to the latest Census of Agriculture, which was just released in early June by USDA, the average farm in Pennsylvania has net cash income of only $14,853 per year.
That's why innovative farmers like Keith Hausman are radically reorganizing their farms to brighten the economic picture. Instead of relying on traditional crops and markets, he has diversified his crop mix, with an emphasis on high-value crops such as blueberries and early season sweet corn and tomatoes. He has added greenhouses to extend his growing season and abandoned wholesale markets. Hausman adds value to what he grows. Overripe fruit, that would otherwise go to waste, is baked into homemade pies by his wife and daughter. The pies sell for $8 each. On one Sunday in Emmaus this summer, Hausman sold 114 pies. That's why he has invested heavily in new ovens and other baking equipment, instead of field machinery. He is reducing his reliance on expensive hired labor and involving more family members in the farm operation. Four days a week, he now sells at four different farmers' markets, all within about 10 miles of his farm.
LONG ROAD TO EMMAUS MARKET
It wasn't always that way, though. The foundation for today's farmers' market in Emmaus was laid back in the mid-1980s when four friends who worked together at Rodale's New Farm magazine started selling their fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, herbs, cut flowers and seedlings in a parking lot behind one of the Rodale buildings on Main Street.
At first, customers came mainly from the nearby Rodale buildings. Then word quickly spread throughout the Emmaus community. Every week, a few more people from around the borough showed up at the market. Though thrifty, the people of Emmaus knew a good thing when they tasted it. They quickly learned to arrive at opening time to get the very best selection and quantity.
There was just one problem: Every week, the four friends completely sold out. No matter how much they brought to market, demand always exceeded supply.
“We need a bigger market, with more growers,” people said.
And so, the search began for a larger, more visible market site. A big vacant lot right on Main Street seemed perfect, but the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation would not allow the curb to be cut so that people could easily drive in and out.
Finally, with the help of the Lehigh County Extension office, a deal was struck in the early 1990s for a tailgate market in the parking lot of South Mall, a sprawling facility on the southwestern suburban edge of nearby Allentown. There was neither shade nor grass, only asphalt. But parking was unlimited. Access was easy. The market was located in plain view alongside the five-lane Lehigh Street, the busiest highway in the area.
From day one, there were many customers. “Too many customers!” complained the management of a chain supermarket located in the mall. Farmers soon got the boot, but even that didn't save the store. The chain shut it down a few years later.
About half of the dozen or so growers involved gave up in disgust. After a long search, the others finally found a new home in a grassy, tree-lined park a few miles away in the small town of Coopersburg.
But back in Emmaus, people were seriously missing their farm-fresh produce. They wanted a market in town again. Enter Joyce Marin, a New York City real estate lending agent, who moved to the borough in 1990. She turned a huge Victorian house into a successful bed and breakfast, served as Main Street manager and was elected a few years ago to Borough Council. “It just seemed ridiculous that I couldn't get my hands on fresh produce,” Marin said.
Borough residents agreed. A farmers' market was one of the ideas that came up again and again when Emmaus civic leaders started holding “community visioning” meetings three years ago. Then Keystone-Nazareth Bank and Trust opened a branch in Emmaus. Bank officials attended a visioning meeting, and the market idea struck a chord.
Bank Manager Ron Glassic came from a retail produce background. He encouraged the bank to make its parking lot available for such a market.
“From a business standpoint it is a great way to get your company involved in the community and, depending on your business, a great way for potential customers to find out where your business is located. It doesn't interfere at all with our business because it's on a day that we're not open,” Glassic said.
The fact that the nonprofit Emmaus Main Street Program already had special event insurance eased any fears about extra cost or liability. A new community group spun off of the Main Street program - Friends of the Emmaus Farmers' Market.
“I was so encouraged that I went to my husband, Paul, who works for UBS, a financial institution. We got the appropriate forms, made a couple of phone calls and, lo and behold, UBS agreed that this would be a good community project. We got $2,500, which was adequate to pay for a banner across Main Street (it cost $1,000) and six A-frame directional signs,” said Marin.
A graphic designer who lives in Emmaus created and donated a logo for the market. It is used on all promotional materials, including the market announcement that Keystone Bank puts in the envelopes of all drive-thru customers.
FINDING THE FARMERS
The hard part was finding enough farmers. “There were not as many as we would like,” Marin said.
John Berry, Lehigh County Extension's marketing specialist, sent a letter to all of the producers he knew in the area. The bank contacted others. Thirteen growers and scores of “friends” attended an organizational meeting. Berry drafted by-laws with one main stipulation: Vendors could sell ONLY what they produced.
“Early on, we were advised by a very wise man that we should take a stand for being a producer-only market - and not permit any reselling,” Marin said. “This was the best advice we ever got, because it distinguished us from all of
the other so-called 'farmers' markets' in the high quality of our produce
and flowers.
“It was a big success - started off with a bang! The public really supported us because the products far exceeded our expectations. We knew it was going to be fresh, but we didn't know all of the flavors and aromas we were going to have at our fingertips, all of the fabulous produce, flowers and heirloom varieties that tasted and smelled fantastic. This really strikes a chord with people. Some of this produce was only cut that morning. It was so far superior to what was in grocery stores that we benefited a great deal from word-of-mouth. Virtually everyone in the borough had heard of it, and heard positive things.”
The sudden success of the Emmaus market has not gone unnoticed. Managers of still-struggling markets elsewhere in the state want to know Emmaus' secret.
“Is your market 'producer-only?' I ask,” said Marin. “No.” “Well, that's your mistake.”
“There are many benefits that come from the producer and consumer actually looking each other in the eye,” Marin said. “With the increasing concerns about food safety, I am greatly comforted by talking with the person who grows my fruits and vegetables. That means a lot for me.
“I just wanted access to fresh veggies, but I also learned there are 100 reasons why responsible people who care about the environment and want to improve their health would buy directly from a farmers market,” she said.
Marin said she learned that the average distance a meal travels to her plate is 1,500 miles, and the average distance to market is 50 miles. “All that shipping doesn't improve the taste or the vitamin content of the food, and it doesn't improve the air quality,” she said. “One thing that people who care about environment can do is shop at a farmers' market - a producer-only market.”

For more information, call USDA's Farmers' Market Hotline at 1-800-384-8704 or visit the Agricultural Marketing Service website at www.ams.usda. gov/farmersmarkets/. The site includes a locator for farmers' markets throughout the country. Another good source of information is the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association, 62 Whiteloaf Rd., Southampton, MA, 01073. Phone: (413) 529-0386, e-mail info@nafdma.com or www.nafdma.com.

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.