“You walk though and you hear English, French, German, Old German….” It isn’t just the food that keeps Kim-Anne Perkins coming back to the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. It’s the sense of a community gathering place. “Maine is known to be particularly white,” she explained. “Going there lets you see the real cultural diversity, that’s not reflected in skin color.” Last summer, she added to that diversity when she brought some Chinese students along. She also recalls an Amish meeting with 15 to 20 carriages lined up, as distant relations came in for what may have been a marriage or reunion. “It’s another piece of texture in what we have here.”
Farmers’ markets were once a vibrant part of cities and towns across the nation and a large part of the economy, and they’re becoming so again. The local food movement has swept across the country and state, tightening the connection between farm and table and other connections as well. “It’s really developed and become a gathering for like-minded folk, where new people can come as well,” Perkins said. “It’s really about seeing the advantage rather than the disadvantage of rural life.” One of those advantages certainly is the food. In particular, it’s knowing where your food comes from. It’s knowing what your food is and what it isn’t. At a time when many people are finding out yet darker truths behind the supermarkets and Big Ag, the resurgence of farmers’ markets is a breath of fresh air.
No single farmers’ market is going to strike a shopper as a rising economic giant. There are over 8000 of them in the nation, however. In Maine, there are about 115 markets taking place in the summer. In winter, there are 30-35. Last summer, the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets collected surveys of market shoppers throughout the state. They found that shoppers spend an average of $20 at neighboring businesses when they go to market. This is one way the markets directly boost Maine’s local economies. Of course, the money spent at the market also goes straight to the producer and into the local economy.
Deena Albert Parks is one such producer. Having recently departed UMPI’s athletic training program, Parks is a vendor at both Presque Isle’s and Fort Fairfield’s markets. Parks has been farming pork for 11 years. It all started when she and her husband, recently married, found they had wedding money left over and decided to try something new. (“Let’s buy pigs!” “Uh…OK.”)
Now she hopes to expand her business, Chops Ahoy Farm, by introducing value-added products to her organic-fed, free-range pastured pork and organic vegetables. Parks’ future value-added ventures will include home-crafted bagels and pre-made pork rubs for everything from roasts to ribs.
In addition to Chops Ahoy, Parks is co-manager of the Fort Fairfield Farmers’ Market with Kate Schupbach. This will be the second year for Fort Fairfield’s market. Schupbach also sells pork, along with vegetables and eggs. Shoebox Farm is run by her large family of “accidental homesteaders,” which includes two sets of twins. Does it hurt to have two vendors selling the same products at a small market? “While we want greater variety,” Schupbach explained, “we also don’t want anyone leaving the market without what they came for.” It turns out potential regulars don’t want to feel that they’re rolling dice when they come. So it pays to have a back-up vendor for your client base if you run out.
Parks sees future farmers’ market success as hinging on education. “People need to know that it’s not more expensive than the grocery store,” Parks says. The exception to this is out-of-season produce that needs to be grown in the greenhouse structure known as a “high tunnel.” But most foods cost roughly the same as their grocery-store counterparts, sometimes less, due to the shipping costs involved in supermarket distribution. In addition to its affordability, food from farmers’ markets gives you more “bang for your buck,” Parks explains. “Nutrients are the fuel for your body. In my work with patients and clients to heal or prevent injury, nutrition has always been so involved.”
On Saturday mornings Parks can be found at the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. Along with Kim-Anne Perkins, many other former colleagues are patrons. “They tend to all arrive at the same time, which is pretty funny,” Parks chuckles. “I don’t think they plan it.” So if you’d like to give Parks a visit and get affordably fueled, you can join UMPI’s current buy-local group with the likes of Kim-Anne Perkins, Kim Sebold, Deborah Hodgkins and Judy Roe. If, however, you don’t get up until noon on Saturdays (at which point Parks will have been up eight hours), perhaps Fort Fairfield’s market, which operates from 2-6 p.m. on Wednesdays, is the one for you.
