Farmer's Markets - is the food any better than in supermarkets?

creative said:
Local farmers means location wise i.e. not the nationality of the owners!
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I know. But there's local about stall holders travelling from the three countries mentioned.

The nearest of those took over two days to get here. And to the detriment of the local market, who cannot sell the same way. Meat products, cooked(still warm) & uncooked stored in the open alongside each other. Even placed into the same bags when bought!
 
We have a few types of things called farmer's markets here in the NYC area.

Farthest out on the edges of suburbia and out in the country where there really are farms and orchards, there are pop-up roadside farm stands where small, subsistence type farmers will sell their produce. They're anything from just the back of a pickup truck and/or a table along a roadside, to a small shack or building on the edge of a farm where you can buy whatever is growing that season. Sometimes you'll just see a sign at the end of a driveway that points to the farm's homestead inviting you to drive up to buy not only their fruits and veggies, but also things like eggs, honey, pies, cheeses, flowers, jerky, and even root beer.
These are obviously the most authentic farmer's markets since you can often actually see the gardens, farm plots, and chicken coops where the food comes from.

The next kind of farmer's markets show up both in suburbia and in the city on weekends in empty parking lots of schools and businesses. They are usually the same thing as I heretofore described, but the farmers load up small trucks to bring their produce closer to larger areas of population. Again, authentic, but sometimes they also add a few items that they didn't necessarily grow or make themselves but rather imported in some way to expand what they have to offer. These can include items from certain ethnicities that live in the area but have nothing to do with a farm, local or otherwise. But these are still primarily a true market of things grown by the people selling them.

Finally, and the strangest places are established, open warehouse type buildings in suburbia and the outer boroughs of NYC that are permanent markets simply called farmer's markets. It is here that it can get confusing.

A few of them are again, products like I described above mixed in with more and more imported items. But most of these are just a type of regular grocery store that for some unknown reason call themselves farmer's markets. The latter can be split into two types: one where very high end produce is sold at slightly reduced prices (I guess the discount comes from the lack of overhead of a regular supermarket), and the other being much lower end foodstuffs, often called seconds. These are the uglier, smaller, or in some way inferior produce/products that would not be good enough to be sold in a brick and mortar supermarket.

I have no idea why these last types of markets refer to themselves as "farmer's" since at that point, all foods are grown by a farmer in some way.
 
classic33 said:
I know. But there's local about stall holders travelling from the three countries mentioned.

The nearest of those took over two days to get here. And to the detriment of the local market, who cannot sell the same way. Meat products, cooked(still warm) & uncooked stored in the open alongside each other. Even placed into the same bags when bought!
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I find this somewhat hard to believe. More importantly, this is not representative of what constitutes most farmers' markets here in UK.
 
buckytom said:
We have a few types of things called farmer's markets here in the NYC area.

Farthest out on the edges of suburbia and out in the country where there really are farms and orchards, there are pop-up roadside farm stands where small, subsistence type farmers will sell their produce. They're anything from just the back of a pickup truck and/or a table along a roadside, to a small shack or building on the edge of a farm where you can buy whatever is growing that season. Sometimes you'll just see a sign at the end of a driveway that points to the farm's homestead inviting you to drive up to buy not only their fruits and veggies, but also things like eggs, honey, pies, cheeses, flowers, jerky, and even root beer.
These are obviously the most authentic farmer's markets since you can often actually see the gardens, farm plots, and chicken coops where the food comes from.

The next kind of farmer's markets show up both in suburbia and in the city on weekends in empty parking lots of schools and businesses. They are usually the same thing as I heretofore described, but the farmers load up small trucks to bring their produce closer to larger areas of population. Again, authentic, but sometimes they also add a few items that they didn't necessarily grow or make themselves but rather imported in some way to expand what they have to offer. These can include items from certain ethnicities that live in the area but have nothing to do with a farm, local or otherwise. But these are still primarily a true market of things grown by the people selling them.

Finally, and the strangest places are established, open warehouse type buildings in suburbia and the outer boroughs of NYC that are permanent markets simply called farmer's markets. It is here that it can get confusing.

A few of them are again, products like I described above mixed in with more and more imported items. But most of these are just a type of regular grocery store that for some unknown reason call themselves farmer's markets. The latter can be split into two types: one where very high end produce is sold at slightly reduced prices (I guess the discount comes from the lack of overhead of a regular supermarket), and the other being much lower end foodstuffs, often called seconds. These are the uglier, smaller, or in some way inferior produce/products that would not be good enough to be sold in a brick and mortar supermarket.

I have no idea why these last types of markets refer to themselves as "farmer's" since at that point, all foods are grown by a farmer in some way.
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Of the markets you mention here, do you buy produce from them? If so, are they fresher than that found in the supermarket.

Re. your last sentence, I think the term farmers' markets is a reference about being straight from source i.e. cutting out the middle man.
 
buckytom said:
We have a few types of things called farmer's markets here in the NYC area.

Farthest out on the edges of suburbia and out in the country where there really are farms and orchards, there are pop-up roadside farm stands where small, subsistence type farmers will sell their produce. They're anything from just the back of a pickup truck and/or a table along a roadside, to a small shack or building on the edge of a farm where you can buy whatever is growing that season. Sometimes you'll just see a sign at the end of a driveway that points to the farm's homestead inviting you to drive up to buy not only their fruits and veggies, but also things like eggs, honey, pies, cheeses, flowers, jerky, and even root beer.
These are obviously the most authentic farmer's markets since you can often actually see the gardens, farm plots, and chicken coops where the food comes from.

The next kind of farmer's markets show up both in suburbia and in the city on weekends in empty parking lots of schools and businesses. They are usually the same thing as I heretofore described, but the farmers load up small trucks to bring their produce closer to larger areas of population. Again, authentic, but sometimes they also add a few items that they didn't necessarily grow or make themselves but rather imported in some way to expand what they have to offer. These can include items from certain ethnicities that live in the area but have nothing to do with a farm, local or otherwise. But these are still primarily a true market of things grown by the people selling them.

Finally, and the strangest places are established, open warehouse type buildings in suburbia and the outer boroughs of NYC that are permanent markets simply called farmer's markets. It is here that it can get confusing.

A few of them are again, products like I described above mixed in with more and more imported items. But most of these are just a type of regular grocery store that for some unknown reason call themselves farmer's markets. The latter can be split into two types: one where very high end produce is sold at slightly reduced prices (I guess the discount comes from the lack of overhead of a regular supermarket), and the other being much lower end foodstuffs, often called seconds. These are the uglier, smaller, or in some way inferior produce/products that would not be good enough to be sold in a brick and mortar supermarket.

I have no idea why these last types of markets refer to themselves as "farmer's" since at that point, all foods are grown by a farmer in some way.
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There is this sense/projection that in buying from such a place that you are aiding the smaller farmers. In cases this may be true, but if they can afford to rent permanent market stalls/spaces, are they actually the small farmers you thought.

@creative, Hard to believe or not, it happened over the last weekend. Causing problems for those paying higher rents in a building, creating more rubbish that the council have to clean up. One lorry on site all weekend, just for this purpose. They are still cleaning the blood and other waste from the roads at night.

Done right, they can work. But they are fast becoming an easy way to sell foodstuffs that you'd not be allowed to sell in a shop. Would you buy meat that you knew had come from an area where livestock movement is limited to CJD(Mad Cow Disease)? I'm on another forum, where one poster claims to be selling such meat at a farmers market. They've been reported, but still he goes on selling it. If that were in a shop or licensed market stall, they'd be shut the same day.
 
creative said:
Of the markets you mention here, do you buy produce from them? If so, are they fresher than that found in the supermarket.

Re. your last sentence, I think the term farmers' markets is a reference about being straight from source i.e. cutting out the middle man.
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Yes, I buy from all that I'd mentioned, except the high end stuff in the large buildings. I guess I'm cheap, er, frugal.

We love to buy from farmsteads and roadside shacks both locally (I live 40+ miles outside of the city) and when we take weekend trips to farming areas in Pennsylvania, NY state, Vermont, and Maryland/Delaware.

I forgot to mention the roadside pickup trucks in Maryland near the shore selling bushels of Blue Claw crabs, and Littleneck clams along with corn, onions, and fruits during the Summer. :okay:

I understand what you mean about cutting out the middleman, but in this case there are several middlemen, and only the ass end is being cut out (The last haul/distribution7 into a supermarket). There still are importers, and distributors, warehousers, and so on. It ain't farm to store to table as they would have you believe.

However, we especially have fun buying things from people known as the Amish in Pennsylvania. They are a religious sect that uses old timey farming methods and do not use electricity or gas powered engines.

It's a sight to see when travelling through their countryside of rolling hills and farms as they plow or harvest a field using a team of horses and equipment from more than a century ago.

When we bought our new house, we had a lot of our furniture handmade by Amish communities. You cannot believe the quality while the price was comparable to what you can buy in a regular store. And to think it was all made without large power tools blows my mind.

Getting back to farmer's markets, I will buy veggies from the "seconds" market for my birds; my familt too, but you need to be sure to shake the boxes of the sweeter fruits like grapes or peaches to see if fruit flies emerge. I've saved a few bucks just to end up dealing with an infestation of fruit flies in their room.
 
buckytom said:
Yes, I buy from all that I'd mentioned, except the high end stuff in the large buildings. I guess I'm cheap, er, frugal.

We love to buy from farmsteads and roadside shacks both locally (I live 40+ miles outside of the city) and when we take weekend trips to farming areas in Pennsylvania, NY state, Vermont, and Maryland/Delaware.

I forgot to mention the roadside pickup trucks in Maryland near the shore selling bushels of Blue Claw crabs, and Littleneck clams along with corn, onions, and fruits during the Summer. :okay:

I understand what you mean about cutting out the middleman, but in this case there are several middlemen, and only the ass end is being cut out (The last haul/distribution7 into a supermarket). There still are importers, and distributors, warehousers, and so on. It ain't farm to store to table as they would have you believe.

However, we especially have fun buying things from people known as the Amish in Pennsylvania. They are a religious sect that uses old timey farming methods and do not use electricity or gas powered engines.

It's a sight to see when travelling through their countryside of rolling hills and farms as they plow or harvest a field using a team of horses and equipment from more than a century ago.

When we bought our new house, we had a lot of our furniture handmade by Amish communities. You cannot believe the quality while the price was comparable to what you can buy in a regular store. And to think it was all made without large power tools blows my mind.

Getting back to farmer's markets, I will buy veggies from the "seconds" market for my birds; my familt too, but you need to be sure to shake the boxes of the sweeter fruits like grapes or peaches to see if fruit flies emerge. I've saved a few bucks just to end up dealing with an infestation of fruit flies in their room.
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Well smallholders may well have higher overheads (e.g. being more labour intensive maybe) compared to produce grown elsewhere for supermarkets. I don't begrudge the cost, i.e. I feel it is largely reflected in the quality of the food.

I envy you your experience with the Amish community! Aside from that, do the other places compare favourably for quality, i.e. superior to that bought in supermarkets?
 
Supermarket bought "UK produced" tomato before 2000, would more than likely have come from here... Europes largest greenhouse
FM.jpg

There's a bit of clearing work on since then, as you can see, behind the greenhouses, now an open field. Nothing grows in it where they had buildings, bar grass.

The small number of greenhouses behind the small field at the bottom of the picture, were used for "farmers markets".

If you want an idea of size, the road at the bottom of the picture, you could park an articulated lorry across it.
 
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creative said:
Well smallholders may well have higher overheads (e.g. being more labour intensive maybe) compared to produce grown elsewhere for supermarkets. I don't begrudge the cost, i.e. I feel it is largely reflected in the quality of the food.

I envy you your experience with the Amish community! Aside from that, do the other places compare favourably for quality, i.e. superior to that bought in supermarkets?
Click to expand...

The roadside stands and shacks are always extremely good; better than supermarkets by far. However, the produce does not last as long once we get it home as that from the supermarket. None of it is treated in any way (such as being coated, or packed with inert gas, or refrigerated, etc.).
 
classic33 said:
Supermarket bought "UK produced" tomato before 2000, would more than likely have come from here... Europes largest greenhouse
View attachment 6987
There's a bit of clearing work on since then, as you can see, behind the greenhouses, now an open field. Nothing grows in it where they had buildings, bar grass.

The small number of greenhouses behind the small field at the bottom of the picture, were used for "farmers markets".

If you want an idea of size, the road at the bottom of the picture, you could park an articulated lorry across it.
Click to expand...

Now THAT's a greenhouse! :eek:
 
buckytom said:
The roadside stands and shacks are always extremely good; better than supermarkets by far. However, the produce does not last as long once we get it home as that from the supermarket. None of it is treated in any way (such as being coated, or packed with inert gas, or refrigerated, etc.).
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I would prefer to buy the fresher, unadulterated market stuff. I do a foodshop 3 times a week anyway (alas not at farmers' markets which tend just to be on Saturday). I am not into longer shelf life when it comes to fresh produce. I daresay though that working people may plump for longer life food!
 
Agreed. My problem is that when I get a chance to buy really good stuff, I buy too much that I can use before it begins to wilt or become over ripe.
 
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