assembling for a purpose
Actions and consequences
Few things are as.American as freedom of assembly, be it in St. Paul, Flagstaff, Mobile, or Carrboro. We believe in our fundamental right to congregate.
We did so on Saturday to appreciate the bounty and spirit of America from a different angle than millions of other folks: to rejuvenate ourselves through the farmers’ market. We had the luxury of visiting two relatively close together in Orange County, North Carolina.
Farmers represented the American story for centuries. We now appropriately rue tobacco for health reasons but because its cultivation, like its successor cotton, by the wealthy few facilitated the slave trade with its horrors. Corn and wheat intertwined with cattle to lure millions of immigrants across the country, tragically eradicating both the Native population (less affixed to specific locations or able to fight back) and the vast buffalo herds across the Central Plains. Our growing, urbanizing, and increasingly prosperous population contributed to the railroad expansion by increasing demand as food sources became distant from the ranches where the beasts were grown.
Today most agriculture is no longer “as close to the land” family farms disappear in the face of agricultural behemoths. Enormous industries, guided by business specialists often hundreds of miles from the plants or pigs, are the bane of many people’s existence. Many consumers fear the corporate policies target family farms for extinction while losing the wisdom of individuals. Yet, these enormous corporations also provide out-of-season crops across a vast distance with relative ease, if not associated costs.
Farmers’ markets, however, represent our yearning to return to a less industrialized age. The food can almost glow with its freshness, luring one to buy a tomato only hours earlier linked to the soil. Most often seasonal to what the ground offers, the wide array of delights seem almost endless and so alluring.
Participating vendors schlep their product to local displays both to share the nutritional value and/or taste and to prove we are not dependent only on Big Biz. The stands require some effort to assemble but rarely portray a fixation with “form over substance”, a characteristic of supermarket stores. The vendor brings what she has, small or large in volume.
Farmers’ markets more arguably build community in our atomized world. Buyers develop preferences for a particular cinnamon roll or goat’s milk soap, eschewing those of another type, while building even a brief face-to-face relationship between the producer and the consumer. Occasionally, those short encounters encourage one to try a completely new food, consider another conversation on politics, or understand the grievances in a slightly more community. I refuse to discount these events in an age of anxiety.
Farmers’ markets are what a cities in America originally were—crossroads of producers on an anticipated date and time in a predictable location
As you can tell, I find farmers’ markets one of the most welcoming experiences for a Saturday morning. It helped, of course, to have lived for twenty years two and a half miles from the country’s longest running year-round market in Alexandria, Virginia. Rare was the Saturday we didn’t go, rain or shine. But, my yearning for farmers’ markets is much deeper as I want genuine farm-to-table opportunities.
But these events, these gatherings, these transactions are vital to our sense of community, of belonging, of checking on ourselves. i regret too many areas may not have them but these assemblies are a feature of this country we control at the local level. They have exploded in popularity as so many of us seek a niche we can rely on. Farmers’ markets are beats in our American hearts, never to be ignored nor sufficient to substitute for other connections. Yet they show us the good and the bountiful, never to be taken for granted.
I welcome your thoughts on gatherings of any type over this weekend. I appreciate your challenges, additions, or corrections as well as your thoughts on any topics.
Thank you for reading Actions today. I appreciate your time as I thank the subscribers who support this column. $55 is a yearly subscription while $8 monthly.
Be well and be safe. FIN
Great post today and hits close to home. Being married to one the aforementioned farmer's market vendors... I know this life! Christine has been at it for 5 years now and it really is an interesting niche community. She doesn't do much produce, but does bring other hand-made products and cut flowers to the market each Saturday from end of April through September. It's a tough environment as the markets are rarely cancelled for weather, temperature or wind. Lighting is about the only thing that will send us home. We've braved it all sitting under a thin, 10 x 10 steel-framed canopy; freezing cold wind, scorching hot and humid days, sometimes soaked to the bone. So far, we've managed not to have our canopy blown into neighboring counties but there are times we wonder what we're doing...and why!
Every Saturday (or Sundays in some locations), random parking lots, small main streets and various fields and plazas are transformed from empty spaces into thriving and vibrant community meet-and-greet locations. We've had many return customers at all our locations from Colorado Springs (where we started) to Stafford, Virginia to now, Meridian Idaho. And we've gotten to know many of our fellow vendors which becomes a bit of a surrogate family on the weekends.
Logistically, we're up before the sun, loading the equivalent of a studio apartment into a trailer. Driving anywhere from 10 to 20 miles. Unloading and beginning set-up...usually in the dark or dim-light of street lamps, headlights or a small sliver of sun on the horizon. By around 8 or 9 am., we have the first customers wandering through to get a jump on produce and other bargains. The food trucks provide coffee and a variety of food options; the smells of something on the grills and griddles wafts through the early morning air.
By about 1 or 2pm,...it's all done. We spend an hour disassembling our canopy and tables, packing everything back into a dozen or so black and yellow tubs, re-load the trailer and head home. The weeks between market days are spent building / making inventory and cutting flowers for the coming weekend.
It becomes a long Spring / Summer. But seeing her interact with her customers, taking the quality of her products so seriously and being the consummate entrepreneur is so worth it. After all... she gave up many career opportunities to follow me around the world for 33 years...making new friends only to say good-bye to them after 2 or 3 years. Packing and unpacking our entire household in some great and some not-so-great locations. Figuring out new shopping areas, home services, weather changes, etc.... the very least I can do is support her dream to own and operate her own business.
I'm so glad you support your local famer's market. It's hard to truly appreciate just how tough a job it is until you've lived it. The vendors love to have crowds...it makes it all worth while!