This is something that I can relate to. I
participate in the LBJ Wildflower Center plant sales three times a year, and the
direct customer contact is very valuable. Not only is it fulfilling, but
it is also educational - what customers need and want, what they don't
like.
However, it is very tiring, on top of other tasks,
and it is not sufficient economically. I think we need Farmer's Markets,
but farmers need other, more stable, outlets too.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 9:21 AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] A Plea for
Noisy Shopping
A Plea for Noisy Shopping http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/notebook/2007/05/a_plea_for_noisy_shopping.ph p
The
farmers market has begun again. This means late Friday nights
and ungodly early hours on Saturday morning. Going to any work on
three hours of sleep is hard, but on top of that I spend eight hours
standing at my farmers market stand and have few breaks since I am the only
one at the booth. But with all of these difficulties the farmers
market is one of my favorite parts of farming. It is here that I get
to see the beginning of the end of my work-the point where I hand over a
package of pork chops that came from a pig I raised from birth that will
end up on the table of this customer.
Even being tired the
farmers market is a place of refreshment for me. Customers who come back
week after week and tell me how good the food I raise is and how much they
appreciate my work. Those comments make it worth it and on those days
I want to quit it all, I remember those customers and keep on because I
don't want to leave their tables empty of the kind of meat I raise.
The farmers market is of questionable economic value to me. I
could probably sell just as much through my restaurant outlets and retail
store customers. But I can't talk to all of those who order loin
chops in a restaurant like I can at the farmers market nor can I gain the
education I have received from all of my customers. Some of them are
FedEx drivers, some are doctors, some are personal trainers and
nutritionists, others are artists and housewives. They share their
recipes with me, their reasons for buying the kind of meat I raise, their
insights into the local economy movement that farmers markets are a part
of.
When I go to the grocery store, and I do go there on occasion, it
feels so lifeless and quiet-vegetables piled in a hospital, animals in a
meat locker. There is no hint of animal or dirt or plant, just
protein, fiber, vitamins, and plenty of simple sugar. There is most
of all none of the noise of conversation between customers and sellers and
between customers and customers and sellers and sellers.
I
hope that one day grocery stores will transform into the noisy places
of conversation that are now present mostly at farmers markets. Life
is not quiet, but full of the noisy chatter of animals and earth.
Going to the farmers market at 4:00 a.m.? I am tired yes, but there
is too much life there to stay tired long.
_______________________________________________ Livingontheland
mailing list Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
|