Market showcases home-grown foods

by Susan Gibbs
Published: June 12, 2008

Local growers will start selling their produce at Greene’s Farmers’ Market (the Market) in just over a week, giving County residents the opportunity to meet them face-to-face, and buy direct.

That’s important, says Elaine Lidholm, director of media relations for the Virginia Department of Agriculture, for several reasons: accountability, price, nutrition, and good taste.

“You’re never 100 percent safe from anything, but your chances of getting a contaminated product from a local grower are probably smaller due to trust,” Lidholm says.

She was referring to a June 4 United States Food and Drug Administration warning concerning the outbreak of salmonella. The outbreak seems to be stemming from the consumption of certain types of raw red tomatoes and products containing raw red tomatoes. 

“We’ve been seeing a growing concern with people about where their food comes from for several years … this is not an issue when you shop at farmers’ markets,” Lidholm says. There, “you can find certified organic food, or food that is ‘natural grown’, or at least traceable.”

At farmers’ markets, Lidholm points out, “There’s no middle man; no outside processor. The farmer is selling to you, not to an anonymous broker. The buck stops with him because you know him. He is probably your neighbor.”

As a result, Lidholm notes, there’s more accountability.

Greene’s Bob Burkholder, a retired farmer who was president of the County’s Farm Bureau for 14 years, agrees.

“I know most of the people who sell at the Market,” says Burkholder. “The growers that supply product to the Market are giving you product that they feed their own families. What better message could they send than that their product is quality and trustworthy?”

Marge Grassi of Ruckersville has been taking her home-grown produce to the Market for four years or so. She sells “anything that’s growing—green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, beets, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.”

Stanardsville’s Velma Shank sells “lettuce, onions, rhubarb and whatever comes” at the Market.

Another advantage of farmers’ markets that Lidholm calls attention to is price, or what she refers to as savings in “food miles; the distance food travels from farm to table.”

The cost of produce is rising she says, due to an increase in transportation costs. Producers who sell at farmers’ markets don’t have to pay those costs, creating what Burkholder calls win-win situations.

While the buyer saves on transportation costs, “a farmer generally gets about 18 cents on a dollar when his produce is sold in a grocery store,” Burkholder says. “But at the Market, the whole dollar goes into his pocket.”

Yet another advantage of buying produce from the person who grew it, Lidholm says, is better health. “The longer a product takes to get to you, the more degradation of nutrition,” she explains.  “Generally speaking, the people who sell produce at farmers’ markets pick in the mornings and sell within a few hours. The fresher the product; the more nutritious it is.”

In addition: “You can make a very good case for the fact that (farmers’ market produce) simply tastes better,” Lidholm concludes. “Most (sellers) are smaller growers and their produce is the closest thing you’re going to find to home grown, unless you’re gardening in your own back yard.”

The Market is co-sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Greene County Ruritans, a community service organization.

Extension, which provides research-based information to the public, will be a presence at the Market via its Master Gardener program.

Tom Walsh of Ruckersville will be running the Master Gardener booth, where he will be available, he says, for “questions about gardens, soils, and pests.”

Ruritans will oversee the overall operation of the Market, which will run through the third Saturday in September.

Burkholder reminds County growers, be they farmers or backyard gardeners, that there is no charge for set up.

He is calling for them to “come, bring your produce and have a good time.”

Grassi is just one who taking him up on his offer: “I love vegetables fresh out of the garden, but I go to the Market because I love talking with the people there,” she says.