We love our Farmers Market! - newberryobserver.com

unitedstatepolitics.blogspot.com

Earlier this month, a piece of information floated into my email inbox that struck a chord with me. The Farmers Market Coalition announced National Farmers Market Week, which is to be held August 1 through August 7 this year. My first thought was that for South Carolina farmers, this date might be a tad late. We have been visiting our local farm stands and markets and feasting on fresh foods since late May when the strawberries were ripe and juicy. So I Googled Farmers Market Coalition, which can be found at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org. There I found that: “The Farmers Market Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to strengthening farmers markets across the United States so that they can serve as community assets while providing real income opportunities for farmers.

The Farmers Market Coalition is driven by three complementary goals. We call it our triple bottom line. Farmers earn fair prices for the fruits of their labor by selling directly to consumers. Consumers gain access to fresh, nutritious, local produce. Communities regain a figurative “town square,” experiencing the many positive outcomes of foot traffic and animated public space.”

Wow, I thought! This is us! This is the Grow Newberry Farmers Market. We are doing this right here in our county and have been doing it for a very long time. While most of our longtime residents can recall farmers’ markets taking place for many, many years, the markets that I can remember date only to about the year 2000. And the evolution of the market in the past twenty years or so is what interested me. Many readers know that I write this column from time-to-time as a business consultant for the Newberry Area Small Business Development Center. Others may know that I became a Master Gardener in 1999 through the Clemson Extension Service program. Still, other readers may know that I am a longtime member of the Newberry County Humane Society. Each of these groups has had a part in the growth of our current Farmers Market.

The very brief history of the current market began with the Master Gardeners organizing a market that met at the County Fairgrounds off Adelaide Street under the shed. It was created to provide a place for consumers to buy local (make that limited to grown in Newberry County) farm products, sold from folding tables and the tailgates of pickup trucks. It was patronized in large part by the ladies of the county who wanted to put up, by canning or freezing, the local corn, tomatoes and other veggies.

To lure the town-dwelling folks and younger people who just wanted good fresh produce, the market moved to its current location in Memorial Park. Management of the market changed over time, including the Eat Smart Move More organization and, now, the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce. Days have shifted, with market managers experimenting with Wednesday mornings and Tuesday evenings in addition to Saturday mornings.

The vendors have changed and grown in variety as well. The market managers began offering a free spot to a local nonprofit organization each week, and thus sprouted the bake sale events from numerous churches and the fundraiser tables of merchandize from the Newberry County Humane Society and the Master Gardeners themselves. These sales have supported various church programs from VBS to missionary work, funded free and low-cost spay-neuter services and emergency medical care to companion animals and support a $1,000 annual agriculture-related scholarship to a local student through the sale of locally grown plants.

Farmers, of course, are business people. They grow and provide a product, find customers to sell to and hope to earn a profit. Soon other business people found that the market is a good place to introduce their products to local shoppers. Thus, local crafts-persons like jewelers, soap-makers, needlecraft workers and woodworkers began to join the market. Homebased bakers asked to sell, and artists brought pottery, paintings and photography to market.

And the market morphed back into “the town square,” as it had been over a century ago. Although there are no longer cattle and other livestock hitched to the tailgates of wagons, and the “ladies lounge” located in Community Hall is no longer the refuge of farm women whose menfolk hung out all day with their friends, the market is still the Saturday social scene. An enterprising vendor sells hot fresh coffee, and you may find fresh items like hand pies, and fritters, and frozen ice delights to snack on as you socialize. There can be an art activity to entertain your young children; there will surely be friendly dogs to pet, and out-of-town relatives to whom you will be introduced.

Just this very year, the market managers elected to hold early-season markets on the second Saturday of April and May. A fall series of Second Saturdays will continue in August, September, October and November. We love our Farmers Market!

And, perhaps most importantly, the farmers market has seen the growth of small businesses. How many of you remember Lever Farms out at the fairgrounds back when both Todd Lever and his lovely wife Lynnette still had “day jobs”? Young Will was selling a few little veggies at a card table beside his mama and his baby sister was watching from the playpen next to the strawberry stand. Have you been to Lever Farms lately? Drive out Highway 34 to Pomaria and see the operation. Wow! And who has noticed the emergence of newcomers like Renegade Acre Urban Farm with the tasty, trendy microgreens that will become your new favorite sandwich add on? How about our local meat producers who come to market with coolers of beef cuts, sausages, chicken, and perhaps fresh eggs. There are new makers of jams and jellies and sauces and rubs. The farmers market is a great place to try out a new line of goods or introduce new buyers to existing products. Our local Grow Newberry Farmers Market is aptly named; it is growing new businesses, growing a sense of community, and growing a reputation that brings new shoppers to town every Saturday.

So come downtown to Memorial Park on July 24 and 31. And mark your calendars for National Farmers Market Week and for the Second Saturdays of August, September, October and November. The Farmers Market in Newberry is growing stronger each year.

Barbara Miller is the Business Consultant for the South Carolina Small Business Development Center in Newberry. She can be reached at Barbara.Miller@newberry.edu.

Adblock test (Why?)

"Market" - Google News
July 24, 2021 at 10:36PM
https://ift.tt/3i0Ku68

We love our Farmers Market! - newberryobserver.com
"Market" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Yge9gs
https://ift.tt/2Wls1p6