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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] interesting article in local magazine: market rules
  • Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 16:12:10 -0400


On Jun 6, 2010, at 12:37 PM, Barking Cat Farm wrote:


Luckily, many of the markets in this area do have decent rules and

follow them. (In the case of one of the most recent start ups, I got
to help *write* the rules!)

Wish the markets in this area would do something similar. Ours are
run by city employees and volunteers, none of whom have farming
experience. It stands to reason. Since we don't have many farmers in
our area, it would be hard to find enough that had the time to farm
AND to manage a market.


The new market was started by a group of people most of whom aren't farmers, but the group did from the start include two farmer/vendors; much of the impetus for this came actually from the other farmer, and the group as a whole was very receptive to how the farmers thought the rules needed to be set up. The manager is not a farmer.

Another market I go to does have a farmer as manager; but a) many of the standard manager's duties are divided up among other members and b) the market has been running, mostly smoothly, since the 1970's (as a local producer market the whole time) and is fairly set in its ways with a slow rate of turnover, so there's not as much that the manager needs to do.

I think that it's not in most cases going to work to have a farmer be the manager, or do most of the in-season work of management; but a group of farmers could get together and do most of the organizational work during the off-season (in climates that have an off-season, at least) and hire a manager; of course, unless the manager is willing to work for love or barter, that option requires at least some money up front for manager's salary (as well as costs for insurance, advertising, and possibly land rent etc.)

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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