Everyone else is opining on the Farmer's market, so I figured I should too. But I'm doing it Feb. 29, 2008-style:
But this talk of local farms got me thinking--why don't we have a Farmer's Market in town.Thanks to all those who made it happen. I'm sure it wasn't easy.
I know there was talk of this last summer, but it seemed to die on the vine. I know one City Councilor questioned whether such an event would compete against in-city business--I think the new Woodman Stand was the one in question. I have to admit, I still don't get the rationale.
How great would it be to have all the area farms congregate their goods a few hours every Saturday? This not only would be an event to draw people downtown, but it would also serve as free marketing for those farms, particularly if the market were held at the Mall. I see stands like Tendercrop and Woodman's benefiting from such an event.
I recall this idea getting dismissed as something yuppie dream. Fine, we get resort to name calling I suppose. But for the life of me I don't see a single good reason for it not to happen, other than it hasn't been done before.
5 comments:
Why worry about 'downtown'? There are farmers and that market locally to local families fromtheir established business and it has proven to be a big waste of time entering the downtown and setting up to repack to return to your regular place of business. This is just serving the yuppies and tourests that are lookng for trinkets, not food. We work hard enough producing and selling to mess with a few tomatoes and cucumbers on a maybe while we need to hire labor to cover our stands.
Downtown is for the Nantucket crowd not the hired help.
Well,
I might be wrong on this, but I doubt the dozen or so participating farms aren't expecting to lose money on the farmer's market.
If it's not worth a farmer's time then they shouldn't do it. You're right, farmer's shouldn't be doing this for the sake of downtown.
But I would have a hard time understanding why any farmer would ignore the opportunity to market their farm and reach out to new customers.
I have to ask, since your use of "we" suggests you're a farmer.
What percentage of the patrons at our local farm stands come from the "Nantucket crowd" and what percentage is the so-called "hired help" (whatever that means.)
Just a thought.
correction
I might be wrong on this, but I doubt the dozen or so participating farms ARE expecting to lose money on the farmer's market.
Wow, I don't even know how to respond to anonymous' generalization that downtown is full of yuppies, tourists and the "Nantucket crowd", whatever that is.
I lived in Brookline for many years, which had a farmer's market near Coolidge Corner. Now, Brookline is a pretty diverse town, more so than Newburyport, but there are a heck of a lot of yuppies and some of the wealthiest people in the state live there. The farmers market rocked, and the people that shopped there were from many different backgrounds. I'd like to believe that a farmer's market in Newburyport could be successful, especially with today's emphasis on buying local food. Yuppies, if that's what we have here,like to follow trends, right? I think some enterprising farmers could find a way to sell their goods at a price point that proves to be profitable while also marketing their established business.
If someone had a chance to go to the CSA Fair at the Tannery yesterday --- which was kind of a preview of the Farmers Market offerings--- they would have seen hundreds of folks strolling into the halls. It also seemed the Jabberwocky, Villagio,etc. we're benefiting. I think its going to be great.
More yummy than yuppie!
Ron M
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