My friends Noel and Danielle live and work at Black River Organic Farm in Ivanhoe, NC (Sampson County), about 45 miles northwest of my house. The farm is owned and run by Stefan Hartmann, a farmer I have known for many years through various projects, now primarily as a supplier for the food co-op where I work as the Produce Manager.
Black River sets up at the Saturday morning farmer’s market in downtown Wilmington every week from April through December. Their table has been slammed since the start of the market season, and they have typically needed extra hands for the duration of the market. That said, Noel called me last night, and I ended up volunteering (with pay) for the market morning. I looked forward to it…
Three or so years ago Kristin and I filled in one Saturday for Noel and Danielle, back when they were working at Grassy Ridge Farm. Back then the farmer’s market was much different than it is now. It was just getting started, and the number of vendors was fairly small and confined to three-quarters of a city block. Foot traffic and sales were low. City residents were just starting to warm up to the idea of a street market with fresh produce and such. Kristin and I stood around most of that morning, and we packed up the majority of what we brought.
All that has changed. Noel and Danielle run, arguably, the most popular table on the strip. Now that the market has expanded to two city blocks, that is a considerable compliment to the farm, Stefan and everyone involved in making everything run as it does.
I knew going in that it would be busy at the table, but I wasn’t prepared for the lack of breaks between waves of customers. I arrived at 7:30 in the morning, locally roasted organic coffee in hand (cheating already). Noel asked me to get everything out of the truck and start setting up. For every basket of goodies on the tables, there needed to be a box of “backstock” on the ground underneath. Corn, tomatoes, peppers, summer squashes, cucumbers, garlic, green and yellow beans, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, basil, rainbow chard, melons, purple scallions… Everything needed to be out in preparation for the crowds.
And they started coming. Noel asked to exploit my strengths of stocking product and to try and deflect the check-out process to himself or Danielle. So I stocked. It was a constant motion of placing produce on the tables and breaking down boxes. At some point, the folks in the crowd had enough of me simply putting things on the table and not taking their money. So I started taking money and stocking at the same time.
Cases of corn and tomatoes disappeared into the bags of shoppers. Questions of how to cook things, and “what is this variety called?” and “can I have another bag” bounced off the poles of the E-Z-Up tent in rapid repeat. Even though I deal with customer questions about produce on a daily basis, the frequency has never been anywhere near what it was at the market.
Customer - “What is the variety of this corn?”
Me – “Uh, bicolor, white and yellow…”
Customer – “No, what variety?”
Me – “Noel! What is the variety of this corn?”
Repeat with other fruit and veggie varieties… It reminded me of the Beavis and Butthead episode where Beavis is asked if the shakes they make at Burger World are made with real milk or reconstituted shake mix. Beavis replies that they have vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. The original question goes unanswered. *Sorry for the reference to a 1990’s cartoon, but living without TV for a decade tends to minimize current pop culture references.*
At the store, I am hardly ever asked about a variety name. Usually it is some weird hybrid name like SRT7-1 that nobody wants to hear about. Not that hybrids are bad, but folks at the market want to know that they are getting Provider beans and Luscious corn and Caliope eggplant and Trust tomatoes. And I don’t blame them. Market farmers tend to have a few varieties that customers recognize the name of, and the names bring a certain trust into the mix that would get left behind if all you grew were Round-Up ready whatcha-call-its.
It really wasn’t a problem that I didn’t know the variety names of the produce. Having not purchased the seeds, planted them or harvested them, my ignorance could be forgiven for the first round of questions. In all honesty, after a few times I knew what was what and could confidently answer questions as if I had packed all the veggie boxes into the truck my own self.
Anyway, the hours of the market were gone before I knew it, and I had just enough time to stop and get some goat cheese from Nature’s Way Farm and Seafood (29 miles) and some raw honey from Olsen Gardens (48 miles), before I had to be at work at the co-op.
As far as what food I was able to get for the day, I picked up 4 pounds of potatoes, a cubanelle pepper and cherry tomatoes from Black River (45 miles), the other farmer’s market food mentioned above, plus a leftover CSA box from work (45 miles), several pounds of lemon cucumbers (5 miles), some out-of-date chicken thighs (scavenged) and some basil and dill from the co-op garden (5 miles). My bicycle basket was full, but the ride home was easy. A full day to be sure, and the only non-local thing was the coffee.
