Over the years I have visited numerous farmers’ markets and you could say I’m more of a spectator or an investigator than a buyer of produce. I have written positively on some of the bigger markets but also wrote negative columns on farmers’ markets. There are good and bad things. I shake my head in disbelief when I see small pint-size containers of green or yellow beans priced at $5 or $6. This summer I saw pint-size containers of tiny early potatoes marked at $6. That’s robbery!
Now to be fair there are some excellent farmers’ markets. I’ve been to some really good ones. I question why many vendors charge outrageous prices selling produce in small amounts. Let’s say you had company over for the weekend and you wanted to treat them with new potatoes and freshly picked green beans. The vendors won’t sell you a few pounds of beans. They should have bushel containers of the stuff on hand and weigh out whatever consumers want. Right? That’s how it’s done in the supermarkets. And their produce is fresh and appealing even though it has come from far away.
If you buy at farmers’ markets it’s good to know the vendors to make sure you are getting what you are paying for. A recent CBC Marketplace investigation on farmers’ markets showed 10 vendors who don’t grow their own produce and claimed they do. They were caught on camera buying produce at the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto, removing it from packaging and putting it in their own baskets so it would look like they had grown it, and picked it on their own farm. Maybe they don’t even have a farm or a garden.
If you’ve ever been to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market in St. Jacobs, Ont. you’ll be impressed. It’s a farmers’ market and flea market and the largest year-round farmer’s market in Canada. It’s a popular destination for residents of the town and nearby communities, as well as tourists from Canada, the United States, and Europe and draws about 1 million visitors annually.
It’s a well known fact to those who are regular customers at the St. Jacobs Market that there are many vendors who purchase what they are selling at the Ontario Food Terminal or at neighbouring produce auctions.
It’s also common knowledge that some market vendors supplement what they have grown with produce they pick up at the Elmira auction or just buy it from their neighbours.
A good example are the vendors who sell California, Florida or South American produce but don’t list the produce as not home-grown and sell it out of season.
It’s ruining the good concept of farmers’ markets. Some (real) farmers are staying away because they can’t compete with unscrupulous resellers. And some farmers probably now don’t want to be seen in a market that has lying crooks.
