How can I find the true locally produced food.
September 26, 2010 7:54 AM Subscribe
How can I tell whether vendors at my local Farmer's Market are really selling locally produced meat, dairy and produce? What questions should I ask? Are there internet resources (websites or forums) that discuss particular vendors in my area?
I live in the DC area, where there are many farmers markets. Per this thread about this article in the LA area, I am worried that some stands at the markets I go to are either not even claiming to actually be local, OR are claiming to be local but are secretly buying from warehouses.
Obviously I want to take as given that eating locally grown food from a small farm is a good thing. I don't want to hear about why local food isn't any better than the food in the grocery store.
I am not interested especially in the vendor's organic-ness either, just their locality.
I only want to know:
How can I determine what claims a vendor is making about the origin of their food? What do I ask them?
How can I tell if those claims are truthful? Does anyone have any inside information about which DC vendors or particular markets are more local than others? Can I find any of this out online, either in forums, blogs or news articles from the area?
Feel free to memail me if you have information you don't want to share with the world.
I live in the DC area, where there are many farmers markets. Per this thread about this article in the LA area, I am worried that some stands at the markets I go to are either not even claiming to actually be local, OR are claiming to be local but are secretly buying from warehouses.
Obviously I want to take as given that eating locally grown food from a small farm is a good thing. I don't want to hear about why local food isn't any better than the food in the grocery store.
I am not interested especially in the vendor's organic-ness either, just their locality.
I only want to know:
How can I determine what claims a vendor is making about the origin of their food? What do I ask them?
How can I tell if those claims are truthful? Does anyone have any inside information about which DC vendors or particular markets are more local than others? Can I find any of this out online, either in forums, blogs or news articles from the area?
Feel free to memail me if you have information you don't want to share with the world.
From my farming perspective, I would ask the person questions about their farm setup, where is it located, what cultivar of fruit/vegetable the object is, how long ago was it picked. There are of course chances where it will be a farmer's friend selling and thus they won't know the answers, but they should at least be able to say "I don't know but the farmer knows and here's how you can ask them". But many small operations have one of the producers doing the selling and thus they know the answers to these questions. If they seem passionate or at least knowledgeable when answering these questions odds are high that they are truthful and are the ones who grew the produce.
Another metric is to see how proud the farmers are of their farm, whether they have "open house" type events or pick your own times, whether they do farm gate sales, whether they have a website and what kind of site it is. That last one is a bit interesting, my experience is that computer technology and farming aren't seen as being at all related with the previous generation of farmers, but the modern generation of farmers can find novel ways to combine farming and technology. Those farmers who do have a regular online presence are ones I would suspect least likely to sell non-produced produce under the guise of produced-themselves, because they know the consequences of bad online publicity and often are transparent to the point where a regular viewer might say "when did you grow those peppers?".
Of course there could very well be the uber player farm, posing as a yuppie-run organic fun factory and selling imported produce at outrageous markups. But I can almost guarantee you that this person won't let you see their farm or offer gate sales, might not have any type of farm branding whatsoever (even just a name on a sign), and might answer your simple questions such as "what kind of a farm do you run" with non-answers.
Basically, if you make an attempt to get to know the farm where the produce comes from, it becomes easy to identify farms who are for real and farms who are there to cash in. Then you can start asking other deeper questions like "what methods of crop protection do you use" or "what kind of fertilizer do you use" and support a farm which uses methods of growing that best sync with what you believe in. Best of all occasionally these farms have open houses or teaching days where you have the opportunity to gain a closer appreciation for the food that you ultimately eat. I know I am a different person than I was back in the Spring after spending these past seasons growing produce and caring for animals.
posted by Meagan at 8:20 AM on September 26, 2010
Another metric is to see how proud the farmers are of their farm, whether they have "open house" type events or pick your own times, whether they do farm gate sales, whether they have a website and what kind of site it is. That last one is a bit interesting, my experience is that computer technology and farming aren't seen as being at all related with the previous generation of farmers, but the modern generation of farmers can find novel ways to combine farming and technology. Those farmers who do have a regular online presence are ones I would suspect least likely to sell non-produced produce under the guise of produced-themselves, because they know the consequences of bad online publicity and often are transparent to the point where a regular viewer might say "when did you grow those peppers?".
Of course there could very well be the uber player farm, posing as a yuppie-run organic fun factory and selling imported produce at outrageous markups. But I can almost guarantee you that this person won't let you see their farm or offer gate sales, might not have any type of farm branding whatsoever (even just a name on a sign), and might answer your simple questions such as "what kind of a farm do you run" with non-answers.
Basically, if you make an attempt to get to know the farm where the produce comes from, it becomes easy to identify farms who are for real and farms who are there to cash in. Then you can start asking other deeper questions like "what methods of crop protection do you use" or "what kind of fertilizer do you use" and support a farm which uses methods of growing that best sync with what you believe in. Best of all occasionally these farms have open houses or teaching days where you have the opportunity to gain a closer appreciation for the food that you ultimately eat. I know I am a different person than I was back in the Spring after spending these past seasons growing produce and caring for animals.
posted by Meagan at 8:20 AM on September 26, 2010
In my experience, most of the real local farms are both happy to tell you where their farm is, and probably have a brochure or a business card for it. I've never gone to a farmer's market where I couldn't leave with the actual address of the farm (and most of the time, an invitation to come out and see everything.)
Most of the time, each farm will have a specialty. The guy selling meat is probably not also going to be selling corn and tomatoes, for example. Anybody selling food that's out of season or doesn't grow well in your region should be suspect.
And when it comes to vegetables and fruit, it should be pretty easy to tell the difference between store-bought and resold, and locally farmed. Farm food is not flawless, it's not waxed, each piece looks individual. Different sizes, different colors and shapes. Anybody who has a tray full of identical apples is reselling, not growing.
posted by headspace at 8:32 AM on September 26, 2010
Most of the time, each farm will have a specialty. The guy selling meat is probably not also going to be selling corn and tomatoes, for example. Anybody selling food that's out of season or doesn't grow well in your region should be suspect.
And when it comes to vegetables and fruit, it should be pretty easy to tell the difference between store-bought and resold, and locally farmed. Farm food is not flawless, it's not waxed, each piece looks individual. Different sizes, different colors and shapes. Anybody who has a tray full of identical apples is reselling, not growing.
posted by headspace at 8:32 AM on September 26, 2010
(In fact, the last time I hit up the farmer's market to get my eggs, he invited me to bring my kids out to collect some, just to see where they came from. Local farmers tend to be really proud of their operations, for good reason!)
posted by headspace at 8:33 AM on September 26, 2010
posted by headspace at 8:33 AM on September 26, 2010
Don't assume that out-of-season crops weren't grown locally. Many savvy small farmers are growing unexpected things out of season or out of the expected climate zone using greenhouses and other creative (and sustainable) technologies. (I'm talking about things like lettuce, eggplants, peppers, and artichokes - bananas in New England are an entirely different story!)
A more clearly damning and blatant tell-tale - and something that was found happening recently at my mom's local market - is finding fruit emblazoned with PLU stickers and sitting in commercial produce boxes marked with the names of other states!
posted by bubukaba at 8:33 AM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
A more clearly damning and blatant tell-tale - and something that was found happening recently at my mom's local market - is finding fruit emblazoned with PLU stickers and sitting in commercial produce boxes marked with the names of other states!
posted by bubukaba at 8:33 AM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
The only inside information I have is for the Star Hollow Farm which is at the Adams Morgan farmers market Saturday mornings and also has a CSA program. The farm is located in Pennsylvania and all of the food comes from that area. Some of the produce and other goods (eggs, cheese, jam) come from other suppliers in the PA area but the head farmer, Randy, is fairly selective in which outside goods he will sell.
Also, if you stop by on a Saturday morning, you can chat up Randy with any questions that you have.
posted by statsgirl at 8:42 AM on September 26, 2010
Also, if you stop by on a Saturday morning, you can chat up Randy with any questions that you have.
posted by statsgirl at 8:42 AM on September 26, 2010
Seconding bubukaba on the warning that not all out-of-season items are an indication of non-local growing. Several small farmers in my area make terrific use of their greenhouses to keep some popular items available (in limited quantities) through the entire summer.
posted by foggy out there now at 9:28 AM on September 26, 2010
posted by foggy out there now at 9:28 AM on September 26, 2010
Most farmer's markets have a website that list vendors, and often those vendors have a website. That might be a good starting place, but really, you can just ask "so where are your farms/orchards?" "Do you grow all your own produce?" The people working are used to these questions. To me, the number one reason for buying local is direct access to providers. Small farmers have a responsibility to their customers that faceless, far away producers don't. So it behooves them to be honest, and most growers enjoy what they do and enjoy developing relationships with their clientele.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:51 AM on September 26, 2010
posted by oneirodynia at 9:51 AM on September 26, 2010
Most of the time, each farm will have a specialty. The guy selling meat is probably not also going to be selling corn and tomatoes, for example.
This might vary by region, but here in the NYC area I find this to be the opposite of true. My favorite farmer at the greenmarket, the guy I know for reals is one of the hard working little guys who really grows his own stuff, is the one who has a mishmash of different things.
He's got a table of veggies (usually workaday usual suspects which grow well in our climate, not top dollar heirloom varieties), he's got eggs and honey in season, he's got another table of potted herbs and houseplants, sometimes there's meat, too. I think they raise heirloom turkeys for Thanksgiving which you can put in an order for. This is also one of the only booths at my greenmarket where I know for sure that the guy selling is the farmer himself. He's a chatty guy and will talk about beet storage or this year's corn crop till his kids get impatient and want to load up the truck and go home.
Real life small farmers have to diversify and raise whatever they can. It's the guys who only have heirloom tomatoes (and always for a curiously long window of time...) I'd worry about.
Another thing is that, in urban farmer's markets, there's a lot of leeway to rent booths to people who are not actually farmers, they're selling bread or flowers or honey or other things. These are the people I tend to assume are not really local, or if they're "local" they're probably using that term in a somewhat meaningless way. Though I do know a flower farmer who really does grow his flowers in season on a real flower farm within the standards of what's considered "local" around here. So I don't think that reservation of mine is universally true.
posted by Sara C. at 9:58 AM on September 26, 2010
This might vary by region, but here in the NYC area I find this to be the opposite of true. My favorite farmer at the greenmarket, the guy I know for reals is one of the hard working little guys who really grows his own stuff, is the one who has a mishmash of different things.
He's got a table of veggies (usually workaday usual suspects which grow well in our climate, not top dollar heirloom varieties), he's got eggs and honey in season, he's got another table of potted herbs and houseplants, sometimes there's meat, too. I think they raise heirloom turkeys for Thanksgiving which you can put in an order for. This is also one of the only booths at my greenmarket where I know for sure that the guy selling is the farmer himself. He's a chatty guy and will talk about beet storage or this year's corn crop till his kids get impatient and want to load up the truck and go home.
Real life small farmers have to diversify and raise whatever they can. It's the guys who only have heirloom tomatoes (and always for a curiously long window of time...) I'd worry about.
Another thing is that, in urban farmer's markets, there's a lot of leeway to rent booths to people who are not actually farmers, they're selling bread or flowers or honey or other things. These are the people I tend to assume are not really local, or if they're "local" they're probably using that term in a somewhat meaningless way. Though I do know a flower farmer who really does grow his flowers in season on a real flower farm within the standards of what's considered "local" around here. So I don't think that reservation of mine is universally true.
posted by Sara C. at 9:58 AM on September 26, 2010
Sometimes the market itself is organized by a group (such as our local Jesuit outreach initiative) that has a website with market schedules, vendor news and promotion plus their mission, guidelines and standards for vendors.
posted by Anitanola at 12:40 PM on September 26, 2010
posted by Anitanola at 12:40 PM on September 26, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
o Do they have only limited varieties of stuff available? When you see places in our area with abundant greens in mid-summer, they are probably not growing them. Also, most of the real farms run into problems with one crop or another. If a place doesn't have something that lots of the other guys do, they obviously aren't buying. Obviously, selling bananas or things that are out of season in your area is a dead giveaway.
o Are their cases banged up from incessant reuse? The real guys don't get a constant inflow of cardboard cases, so theirs usually look like they have been sat on by elephants. People who are cheating get a constant influx of new cardboard cases.
o Talk to them and try to get answers to questions like when do they pick the stuff for today's market and what items do they expect to have more of in the next few weeks. Ask them if they find any of the produce to be especially flavorful this year, ask them almost anything. I find that you get subconscious alarm bells from some people and you get a very solid feeling from others.
o Ask if they host a farm day during the year for customers to come visit. In Richmond, all the places that do that are pretty much the real deal.
posted by Lame_username at 8:15 AM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]