July 24, 2008

Bull Market
The ‘eat local’ trend has translated into more business at farmers’ markets
By Susan Ware Flower food@hippopress.com

Rising fuel costs and concerns over food safety have people swarming their local farmers’ markets, joining CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) groups and sourcing local, humanely raised protein.

For farmer Diane Souther this trend has meant a sharp spike in business.

“I can honestly say that over the past two seasons we’ve seen a 40-percent increase in sales at farmers’ markets and the farm stand we have,” Souther said.

Souther owns Apple Hill Farm in Concord. There she offers pick-your-own berries, and grows produce like lettuce and peas. Souther began hitting the farmers’ market circuit seven years ago. Like most farmers, she saw it as a way to both promote her farm’s pick-your-own business and move produce. The result has been positive; Souther estimates that most of the farmers she speaks with are seeing a 25- to 40-percent increase in sales.

“A farmers’ market gives farmers the best word of mouth advertising. And with more people wanting to reduce their carbon footprint and get to know their local farmer, we are seeing more and more crowds at the farmers’ markets each week,” said Souther, who sells at markets in Concord, Manchester and Bedford.

In the past, consumer education has been a struggle for farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture, commonly referred to as CSA. People would not understand the natural growing cycle, because consumers are so used to having all types of produce and vegetables at their fingertips in the big-box supermarkets.

“Before, it was a real struggle, but people seem to understand how it all works better now. I tell people all the time not to bring a shopping list to the farmers’ market, come with an open mind and shop what’s in season,” Souther said.

With a large number of people scrambling to join a local CSA in light of recent food security issues, some folks are surprised when their weekly box contains all greens, for example, and not a wide variety, like the supermarket.

Since it is local only, you are at the whim of the growing season. When you join a CSA, you are paying the farmer in advance of the growing season for a share in the farm’s harvest. This gives local farmers additional resources to pay for seeds, greenhouse supplies, heat and  labor early in the season. In return, you will receive a steady supply of quality, locally grown, seasonally fresh food from June through October, at an affordable price. You know where your food comes from, you know the farmer  and you can visit the farms if you want.

“People seem to have a better understanding now.  There’s been so much media coverage about buying local that people now understand that they won’t get corn in May, in New Hampshire,” said Elizabeth Obelenus, the member coordinator for Local Harvest CSA, a Concord-based organization made up of eight farms.

Local Harvest is an organic CSA that has roughly 264 members, up from last year. The organization is considering capping membership at 300 next year, though it is bittersweet.

“It is the economies of scale. It’s obviously better for the farmers to have more people to grow for,” Obelenus said.

Farmers associated with Local Harvest CSA see the benefit of participating, and Obelenus said they are getting more innovative and finding ways to bring a wider variety of produce to harvest faster. The average cost to join Local Harvest CSA is $29 week for a single share, which would feed two people.

Kim Prause lives in Moultonbboro and just spent a year blogging about the challenges of eating local. Her blog, yankeefood.wordpress.com, chronicles her quest to locate local sources of food that would keep her and her husband eating local through the long New Hampshire winter. Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she started her culinary journey.

Prause admits that she isn’t like your average time- and cash-strapped shopper rushing to get dinner on the table before the kids melt down. In fact, during this past year she learned to make cheese, render lard, produce maple syrup and can tomatoes. But you don’t need to be in the same league as Prause to eat locally.

“Last summer I joined a local CSA and hit the farmers’ markets regularly. I had a goal — to preserve or freeze as much as I could to get us through the winter without having to buy produce or vegetables,” she said.

Prause said that her planning brought them through early April. But, despite her freezer full of produce and vegetables, her husband refused to give up bananas, and at one point during the winter, salad greens, so they headed to the supermarket for those.

But everything else, she found locally. Prause sourced meat raised within 20 miles of her home and found a source for eggs, milk and other products.

She plans to continue her blog, expanding on her progress of eating locally, complete with recipes and photographs, and as a side project, is thinking about approaching area schools about bringing in more local food.

For Jennifer Lamper, co-owner of Twist of Fate Farm in Dunbarton, the eat-local movement has meant that her business has doubled in the last six months alone. She attributes it to consumer education, concerns over food safety and the media.

“Plain and simple, people want to buy local. They want to know what they are eating and where it came from,” she said.

Lamper spends much of her time giving tours of her farm.

“People like to visit and see that the animals are in their natural habitat, wandering around. That they are being treated humanely and are happy,” she said.

Twist of Fate Farm uses a processing facility that works with only eight to 10 animals each day, and the food safety inspector is on hand for each slaughter. This compares to large commercial facilities that process two animals every minute and inspect one in 500 animals.

The fastest-growing component of her business is people wanting to buy a side of beef.

“People want a side of beef. They want to fill their freezer with food from one source, a source they can trust,” she said. A side of beef averages $3.15 a pound.

One of the most touted benefits of eating local is that it supports farms which in turn fights sprawl. If a farmer gets in financial trouble, there always seems to be a real estate developer waiting to scoop up the acres.

A few years ago, farmers’ markets in New Hampshire were struggling. Mark Padfield and his wife Kathy were regulars at the Manchester Farmers’ Market and had concerns that it was going to die out. Today the Padfield’s company, NH Blacktop Sealers in Auburn, is a corporate sponsor.

“Supporting the famers’ market is win-win for the economy,” Mark Padfield said. Along with offering healthy, often organic vegetables and produce, Padfield feels that the positive trickle-down effect is too vast to ignore.

“A farmers’ market brings a sense of community. It is a gathering place, and we don’t seem to have too many of them anymore. Plus, it brings people downtown and helps drive all of the businesses,” he said.

Each week the Padfields do most of their grocery shopping at the Manchester Farmers’ Market. Some weeks the couple doesn’t get there until later, and they find that farmers have sold out.

“I couldn’t be happier when a farmer tells me he or she is going home with an empty truck,” said Padfield, who brings in pastries for his staff on Friday mornings. He buys them from LaLa’s Hungarian Pastry, at the Thursday afternoon farmers’ market.

Padfield believes that the eating-local movement is only going to get bigger and that things like farmers’ markets will become the norm.

Several years ago Sara Zoe Patterson was inspired by the local food challenges that were becoming all the rage on the West Coast. At the time she rose to the challenge of eating within 100 miles of her Weacoast home and started a blog titled FolkFood. She started getting readers from all over the nation, but knowing that each area of the country has very different growing cycles, she wanted to focus more on New Hampshire. She has since discontinued FolkFood and started Seacoast Eat Local, an ad hoc community group dedicated to promoting local farmers and food sources.

“When I first became interested in the whole eating local movement, there wasn’t a lot of locavores around, or at least in groups,” Patterson said. A locavore is someone committed to eating local, most often within 100 miles of their home.

“Today, there is so much more energy around the issue. People have embraced it and as a result, new opportunities are cropping up,” Patterson said.

Last year Seacoast Eat Local sponsored three indoor winter farmers’ markets, which Patterson says were a huge success. This year the group has six planned. Additionally, last month the group developed an online database, www.seacoastharvest.org, which is a printable guide to all growers and producers in Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire and York County, Maine.

And that’s not all. Seacoast Eat Local has been the driving force behind “New Hampshire Eat Local Week,” which will be held Aug. 3 to Aug. 9. During that time the 3,400 farms in New Hampshire will be promoted to residents and the thousands of vacationers who visit.

“We hope to reach people who are curious, but weren’t inspired by other eat-local challenges. We are challenging people to start shopping at a new farmers’ market, bring a friend or host a locally grown dinner,” Patterson said.

There’s been a Web site set up, www.nheatlocal.org, where you can sign up for the challenge and read the latest blog posts of some very dedicated New Hampshire locavores.

“Lots of us are fairly dedicated to the eat-local movement, and it’s only going to get bigger. We believe that if you can buy it locally, you should. But, having said that, if you want oranges in winter, go on and get them,” Patterson said.

In business, indoors
Amherst’s indoor farmers’ market has a new name but the same mission
By Linda A. Thompson-Odum food@hippopress.com

For fans of the Amherst indoor farmers’ market, stories of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

Though the market did technically close in mid-March, it reopened the very next day with a new name — the Farmers’ Market at Salzburg Square. Area locavores still have a place to shop year-round, but now with extended hours and more selection.

Owner Karen Girardo was a vendor in the previous market. She first sold her Just Naturals home and beauty products from a small booth and then moved into a larger boutique to the side of the market.

“When I heard it was closing, I thought ‘No way,’” she remembered. “Many people felt a sense of loss. So I just decided I couldn’t let it happen.”

Girardo gave the place a face lift, with warm paint colors and local artists’ work on the walls. She also extended the hours to seven days a week. The market’s focus is still on local products and she has added some regional items to round out the selection. The market was the first indoor farmers’ market in the area. Recently, the Franco American Centre in Manchester announced that it will hold an indoor market at its 52 Concord St. location in Manchester on the second Saturdays of August, September and October from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (See www.facnh.com for more.)

Three years ago, Girardo began Just Naturals in her home when she became sick from the chemicals in cleaning and beauty products. The business soon expanded to the Internet, and then to retail sales in the farmers’ market. She blends each of her products, and prints every label, and can make custom blends for customers.

“Running two businesses can be a challenge, but it’s also rewarding. Plus, they share a customer base,” she said.

That customer base is diverse. “We get people looking for local products, or just something interesting,” Girardo said. “A lot of people want New Hampshire-made products, are looking to support the farms and small businesses who make the products, or they want healthier choice.”

Some of the market’s highlights include fresh-baked bread delivered daily, locally produced meats and dairy products, fresh fish delivered Tuesday through Saturday, and produce from three local farms, with more farms set to come on board soon. There are also wines, pet products, and Dinner Solution’s ready-made meals. Some of the New Hampshire-made products include A & E coffee, Abigail’s breads, Desserts by Donna, Beasley’s Barbecue Sauce, and Yankee Buffalo.

Girardo pointed out the benefits of local products. “The farmer who delivers our eggs told me that egg farmers have 30 days to get their eggs to the stores. The stores have about two months to sell the eggs. That means those eggs could be around 90 days old. Here the eggs are only a day or two old and replenished each week.”

There are special events planned each month, such as healthy eating classes and food allergy seminars. Most highlight both of Girardo’s shops. There is also a wine tasting every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., and the market features a number of New Hampshire wines. Girardo plans to add more organic wines in the future, as well as other organic products.

“We give education and information to our customers,” Girardo said. “We give them the personal touch that they can’t find at a big conglomerate or even the weekly farmers’ market where the farmer usually only has about four hours to sell and is very busy.”