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Posts Tagged ‘farmers market’
Just a reminder that there is no Clevedon Farmers Market this week as it is the annual Clevedon A&P Show.
Check out the information about the A&P Show by clicking here
Below are some photos of the Clevedon Farmers Market at Labour Weekend. The two grandchildren played on the back of the truck while five of us were serving customers. Our busiest day yet!!!
We will have seven varieties of tomato plants available at the markets from tomorrow. See below for details…
Some photos of our stall at the Mairangi Bay Village market yesterday…
We love this article!
Top 5 Ways to Find Honest Vendors at Farmers Markets
By Joel Grover, Matt Goldberg
NBCLosAngeles.com
Ever since an NBCLA undercover investigation last month, consumers have wondered whom they can trust at farmers markets.
Our investigation found vendors selling food they simply bought at a wholesaler, and others who flat-out lied about their fruits and vegetables being pesticide free.
“You have a lot of people giving you misinformation,” says Jami Hoffman, who buys her produce every week at several farmers markets. “How do you know when to trust them?”
So NBCLA has put together some tips on how to find honest vendors, who truly sell locally grown produce.
Our advice is culled from government agriculture officials, operators of farmers markets and consumer advocates.
1) Ask the farmer a lot of questions.
- Ask him the exact location of his farm. Ask him if you can visit the farm. Ask what produce he’s harvesting this week. If he can’t give you specific answers, or acts too busy to talk to you, that’s a big red flag. During our NBCLA investigation, one of our “undercover shoppers” asked a farmer the exact location and address of his farm. He said he didn’t know. What? A farmer doesn’t know where his farm is located? We later discovered that farmer was selling mostly items he’d bought from large commercial farms; not stuff he’s actually grown himself.
2) Talk to the “market manager.”
- Every certified farmers market has an on-site manager, who knows about the vendors at his or her market. Greta Dunlap, who runs the Beverly Hills farmers market, is known as one of the most diligent market managers. Dunlap says she will sometimes snap pictures of the produce at a stand, then make a visit to the farm to verify that they’re really growing what they’re selling to consumers. “It’s pretty black and white when the vegetable or fruit is nowhere to be found,” says Dunlap. She says she’s kicked out three vendors in the last two years who she caught selling stuff they didn’t grow. Dunlap says she’s always happy to answer questions for market customers about vendors.
3) Verify for yourself that a farmer really grows what he sells.
- If a farmer is selling 26 different items, and only has a two-acre farm, he might be “supplementing” his product line with items from commercial farms. By law, a farmer must show customers, if they ask, a copy of his state certificate to sell at farmers market. This certificate lists all items he’s allowed to grow. During our NBCLA investigation, we noticed one farmer selling limes, but when looked at his state certificate, it showed he didn’t have any lime trees on his farm. He obviously bought those limes commercially.
4) Don’t be fooled by the appearance of the produce.
- Produce that’s locally grown isn’t always as attractive as the stuff grown on large commercial farms that use multiple pesticides and commercial fertilizers. Numerous farmers market managers say strawberries are a case in point. “Berries that big, bright red, and uniform in size,” are usually not grown on small local farms, said one market manager. What you’re looking for is produce that fresh-picked, ripe, and tastes great.
5) “Pesticide free?” Oh, really?
- A lot of vendors will tell you their produce is “pesticide free,” but that’s just not true. In our NBCLA investigation, we tested strawberries from five vendors who made that claim, and three of the samples contained multiple pesticides. If a farmer makes this claim, ask him to specifically tell you what methods he employs to controls pests on his crops, such as using natural predators. When an NBCLA undercover shopper asked a farmer selling “pesticide-free” peaches how he controlled bugs on his trees, he couldn’t tell us. If you want to be sure you’re buying produce that’s grown without synthetic chemicals, buy from vendors who are USDA certified as “organic.” This means they’ve had to meet certain uniform government standards for growing without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
Under the law, it’s the job of county agriculture inspectors to police farmers markets and make sure the vendors are telling you the truth. But our NBCLA investigation found inspectors rarely catch the cheaters.
That leaves it up to you, the customer, to determine which farmers are the real deal and which aren’t. Shopper Jami Hoffman says since the NBCLA investigation, she realizes she has to ask farmers a lot more questions.
“You really have to do your research,” says Hoffman. “And you really have to use your intuition and your gut.”
Phil has gone crazy with his tomato plants this year!!! We have had them available at the markets for the last couple of weeks but this weekend we will have an abundance!
It is the perfect time to be planting them and this year we have two varieties available. Minibelle – a cherry tomato variety and Zola – a beef steak type variety. We have chosen these after many years of testing different varieties including heirlooms. These two varieties seem to be the easiest and most low maintenance to grow. Both are dwarfing varieties so no stringing or lateraling!!! YAY!!! All you need to do is keep them watered everyday and feed them every so often (Nitrosol or something similar is perfect). However for those of you that like to potter away in the garden stringing and laterling we will have six other varieties available from Labour weekend.
We keep them in large pots on the deck right beside the bbq along with a couple of pots of basil (we will have basil available from Labour weekend – a bit too cold in Auckland still, our seeds have just germinated!). Yum! Imagine the meals that you can make!!!
You will need to allow about 1m2 around the pot or garden as the laterals will shoot out to this area. The plants in our experience produce heaps of fruit.
Come and see us at Mairangi Bay, Clevedon, Britomart and Howick this weekend. Feel free to ask questions as we will be more that happy to help. Phil will be at the Mairangi Bay and Clevedon markets. He is the tomato expert!!! Check out this link to find out why http://www.clevedonherbsproduce.com/who-we-are/
Here are some photos from last year’s crop’s
Whangarei Growers’ Market in action. Photo by Jerome Cvitanovich.
On the next episode, screening 17 July at 7 p.m. on TV ONE:
Growing Strong
When supermarket price-setting was threatening the livelihood of Northland growers, they fought back by cutting out the middle man and selling their produce direct to consumers.
Today the Whangarei Growers Market is a thriving venture providing a living for around 30 local producers. Many more seasonal suppliers jostle for space throughout the year.
The market was started 12 years ago by Robert Bradley and Murray Burns in what has been likened to a David and Goliath struggle.
Robert Bradley says the supermarket chains were using their buying power to dictate prices, with low returns driving small to medium sized growers out of business.
Tomato grower and market co-founder Murray Burns was one of those whose margins were being whittled away.
“The only way to deal with that was to get much bigger or close down – and we wanted to do neither,” says Murray.
The pair were inspired by the concept of village markets in Europe and the United Kingdom, and a resurgence of farmers’ markets in the United States.
They found other growers who shared their predicament and a group of 12 held the first market in a car-park in Whangarei in 1998.
It now takes place every Saturday morning and, when Country Calendar visited, everything from fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, milk and cheese to macadamia nuts and olive oil was on sale. The market has a rule that all produce must originate in Northland.
The local-only principle has kept struggling growers afloat and encouraged new businesses that may not otherwise have been viable. Asparagus, for example, is now grown in Northland for the first time in many years.
The market is also a venue for growers and consumers to meet face-to-face – there is a requirement that growers are also the stallholders.
At the peak of the growing season, the market attracts up to 6000 shoppers over the four hours it is open. Around 50 pallets, or 2000 cases, of produce is sold each Saturday.
Robert Bradley says the key to success has been offering significant qualities of high quality local produce at moderate prices.
Many similar markets have sprung up around the country in the last decade but the Whangarei enterprise deliberately distances itself from the popular farmers’ market movement.
Robert believes some of the newer markets have got sidetracked into “food fashion”.
“For us it is a matter of ‘keep it simple stupid’ – and it has really worked.”
- Watch Robert and Murray talking about the evolution of the Whangarei Growers Market.
Hi there,
New potatoes may be available this weekend. We will be picking a plant tomorrow night for dinner – looking forward to new potatoes in the middle of winter. Beetroot in winter is really hard to grow without spraying. We thought we would try to grow some in buckets under the plastic – it will be most interesting to see if we can keep them disease free with having the weather off them.
It is University holidays at the moment so Phil is able to have some extra muscle available for the heavy work which is inevitable as we prepare for spring.
Jenny
This article was written back in January but is quite a good read about the Clevedon Farmers Market.
Going Local by Amanda Laird in the New Zealand Herald