Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

After months of "intending" to go to Farmers' Markets in the area, we finally did it, to have a more "local" Thanksgiving.  All in all, I was disappointed and want to ask if what I saw is typical. 

 

First, we visited the premier organic farm in Austin.  Good produce, but the sales area was so small that only one person could occupy an aisle at a time.  Frozen items were in an upright freezer that rocked and threatened to fall over.  Not bad, but not an experience to be remembered.

 

Next was the biggest Farmers' Market in the Austin area.  More like a county fair, with handcrafts and food booths in a paved parking lot.  If shopping and eating are your goal, I guess it's ok, but there was no information on the farms or the farmers.

 

Last was a working farm, for our free-range turkey.  No doubt the folks work hard, and they have a good reputation for their product, but the visit was pretty unpleasant.  The whole area reeked of oil (looked like a biodiesel setup next to the processing shed).  Junk was scattered everywhere and buildings were falling down.  It didn't look or smell like a good food-producing area.

 

I guess that I expected the farmers to provide an enjoyable "farm experience", as well as the product.  Probably this attitude comes from our own efforts to make our nursery an attractive "destination", which customers would view as indicative of the effect of native plants.  Regrettably, it appears that the farmers are not looking at all aspects of the business.

 

What are Farmers' Markets and farm stands like in other areas?

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz