The newest old thing

Michigan farmers markets grow on new ideas and old-world dirt

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Sunshine poured onto a tight rectangle of tents at the Allen Street Farmers Market on Lansing’s east side Wednesday.



Heaps of fresh greens and herbs, quickened by head starts in hoop houses and picked that morning, shared early June market space with meat, cheese, cookies and exotica like crab Rangoon, high-end coffee and homemade popsicles.



The human mix was even more diverse: recently resettled refugees, young hipsters, senior citizens, office cubicle exiles in heels and ties, academics, middle-aged hippies. Parents prowled with babies in front, babies in back, babies in wagons. Folk musician Art Cameron sang a song about worms. The hugs and greetings were relentless.



Farmers markets are a big deal in Michigan, but they’re built on small transactions.



A big man in glasses, black pants and a dress shirt headed into the parking lot, carrying two bags of greens. Weird white stalks protruded from one of his bags, wobbling with each step he took. A lady stared. The man noticed and enjoyed her puzzlement.



“I have garlic and arugula and I'm going to make pesto,” he turned to her and announced.


She looked ready to follow him home.



Open-air lobby



A bumper crop of farmers markets is spreading across Michigan, ranging in size from Detroit’s bustling, 4.5-acre Eastern Market to the dozen-and-a-half booths of the tiny Bath market just north of Lansing — about 330 markets statewide in 2015, up from 150 nine years ago.



Farmers markets are the newest old thing. Their taproot is a longing for old-world comforts like community, fresh food and a sane, sunlit stroll that’s scaled to a human size and pace.



At the other end of the stalk, many markets are re-seeding themselves with new products and ideas, from high-end food and wine to innovative programs that help people with low income get access to healthy food.



“They’re strongly traditional and trendy at the same time,”  said Dru Montri, director of the Lansing-based Michigan Farmers Market Association.



If anyone has a handle on the diversity of Michigan’s farmers markets, it’s Montri, who has led MIFMA since it started in 2006. Farmers markets are impossible to pigeonhole, and she loves it that way.



“Walk into a chain grocery store, in Mississippi or Michigan, and the layout and products are basically the same,” Montri said. “I’ve never gone into a farmer's market that’s the same as any other.”



Montri said communities start farmers markets with different missions in mind.



“Some markets, like Saginaw’s, are about providing access to healthy food,” she said. “Others are meant to create a community gathering place. Other cities might want to re-invigorate downtown, preserve green space or incubate new businesses.”



Often, they end up doing more than one of the above.



Montri might be the only lobbyist in Lansing whose lobby is in the front yard of the Capitol.



Three times each year, MIFMA throws a huge farmers market event on the Capitol lawn, showcasing more than 60 vendors from across the state. This year’s Farmers Markets at the Capitol are set for July 30, Aug. 27 and Sept. 24, all Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.



Montri works on a state-wide scale, but she’s rooted in small-town farm life. She and her husband, Adam, own and run Ten Hens Farm in Bath and sell at the Bath Farmers Market, a cozy huddle of 12 to 18 vendors.



“For so long, our community wanted a space to gather,” Montri said. “There’s a jam session where people just come and play music. We have picnic spots. It's an incredible space.”



The Capitol farmers market is turned up a few notches compared to Bath’s, but the core idea is the same.



“People want to know where their food came from and how it was produced,” Montri said. “Where else can you can meet the person who grew or made your food?”



Capitol market goods range from eggs, fish, meat and cheese to cider, donuts, pies, chocolates, maple syrup and flowers. The markets gives Lansing area folks a chance to sample from vendors they would normally have to go far to visit, like gnocchi from Tracina’s Gourmet Specialties, an Italian cookery in Novi.



But the Capitol markets are more than a showcase. There’s a method to the madness of parking a farmers market, with its aroma of economic development, under the noses of state decision makers. Montri believes the approach has borne fruit.



State Sen. Joe Hune worked with Montri and her colleagues on the “cottage food” bill that let small-scale businesses make certain foods — like jams, jellies and baked goods — in their homes and sell them at farmers markets. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm at a Farmers Market at the Capitol in 2010.



More recently, Sen. Geoff Hansen introduced bills allowing small winemakers to offer wine samples and sales at farmers markets, signed into law in 2013 by Gov. Rick Snyder.



Two years ago, state Rep. Andy Schor introduced legislation allowing beer tastings and retail sale of growlers at farmers markets. Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright has picked up that ball, and Montri expects it to pass soon.



Double up



Getting wine, beer and high-end comestibles into farmers markets isn’t Montri’s only priority. Many Michigan farmer’s markets, like Saginaw’s, are determined to bring healthy food into low-income “food deserts” where supermarkets are scarce.



“We do a lot of work related to increasing food assistance benefits at farmers markets,” Montri said.



When MIFMA started in 2006, only three markets in Michigan accepted food stamps, now known as SNAP (State Nutritional Assistance Plan) benefits, according to Amanda Shreve, manager of programs and partnerships at MIFMA.



Now about 150 participate in the program. About $1.6 million in SNAP benefits were spent in Michigan farmers markets last year.



Since 2009, low-income shoppers have flocked to a new program: Double Up Food Bucks, run by Ann Arbor’s Fair Food Network and funded by the USDA.



A shopper who goes by the name Bill-i I (pronounced “Billy Eye”) explained the program to me at the Allen Street Farmers Market Wednesday. For every $1 of SNAP money spent in a farmers market, Double Up Food Bucks adds another $1, for the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables only, up to a limit of $20.



I put in $20 from my food stamps and I got an additional $20 to put back into these local farmers, I said. (That’s Mr. I, not me.)



The Allen Street Market is in its fifth year participating in Double Up. Market Manager Lizy Ferguson said the program “gets bigger each year.” Double Up will be offered at more than 142 Michigan farmers markets this year.



“It means you can spend your EBT money on meat, bread, cheese and so on, and basically get all of your produce for free,” Ferguson said.



Farmers markets seem to do best when they straddle high-, middle- and low-income neighborhoods. The Allen Street Market is a textbook example. The market was visited Wednesday by newly resettled refugees from Somalia and a particle physics professor from MSU's multibillion-dollar Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.



Despite the crepes, fancy coffee and other specialty items, Ferguson said the market will never turn into a boutique on her watch. She’s not afraid of telling food vendors to cut prices or discouraging them altogether.



“This market is down to earth and I want it to stay that way,” she said. “That’s what people like about it.”



The South Lansing Farmers Market is benefiting from a similar demographic mix. Lansing City Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar is the market’s guiding spirit (“gub’mint cheese,” in her words).



“I’ve got guys who come here from Cambridge (a nearby, high-income neighborhood) and drop $600, cash, in organic meat in one day,” Dunbar said. “And I’ve got people who have six bucks balance on their EBT card, and they’re thrilled they can get it to 12 with Double Up.”



Ferguson gives MIFMA a lot of credit for making farmers markets accessible to low-income people. Both the Allen Street and South Lansing markets are members of MIFMA, which is funded by vendor fees and sponsorships.



“They are our connection to Fair Food Network,” Ferguson said. “They do a lot of the work of bridging the gap.”



The world of farmers markets turns on partnerships among vendors, market managers and community leaders. MIFMA’s yearly conference of market managers is a networking boon, Ferguson said.



“I came back from the last conference with two pages of dense notes,” she said. “It gave me tons of ideas for vendors I would never have thought of and lots of other ideas.”


Year round, MIFMA holds webinars and training sessions for managers of member markets. Market managers and vendors also share their experiences on social media, using the hashtag #farmersmarketsmi.



Dunbar said all the market managers at the South Lansing market have been certified and trained by MIFMA.



Getting the right mix of vendors is a key part of MIFMA market manager training. Brenda Ginther of Wooden Shoe Farm in Mason has been an Allen Street Farmers Market vendor for three years. She also sells at markets in Eaton Rapids, East Lansing and Dimondale.



“A lot depends on the management,” Ginther said. “You need all types of vendors.”



She’s seen managers let markets die on the vine and appreciates Ferguson’s expertise and passion.



“You don't do this for your health,” Ginther said. “It’s hard work.”



MIFMA also helps market managers cope with day-to-day glitches.



“We just got something out of (membership in MIFMA) today,” Dunbar said at Thursday’s market. That afternoon, the machine that processes SNAP benefits broke down hours before the market was due to open. Amanda Shreve, MIFMA's manager of programs and partnerships, helped them fix it.



MIFMA also helps markets navigate gray, unregulated areas such as the tricky landscape of brokered items, or items not grown by the vendor. Some farmers markets specify that everything on sale must be grown by the vendor, but that sometimes frustrates shoppers by limiting the variety of foods on sale.



“There’s no set policy,” Dunbar said. “Amanda (Shreve) culled the best practices for us.”



With Shreve’s help, the South Lansing market settled on the policy that all food sold there has to be grown in Michigan and not bought from a commercial wholesaler or retailer. Farmers can, however, purchase items from one another and put them up for sale.



“You have to identify what’s grown by you, what’s brokered by you and where you got it,” Dunbar said. “We do farm visits to verify.”



Old World roots



Jim Bingen, a professor emeritus of community, food and agriculture at MSU, has been following the rise of farmers markets for decades. Bingen is a former member of the MIFMA board and has researched farmers markets around the world.



The current boom in Michigan, Bingen said, is a convergence of several trends, including the expansion and revitalization of long-standing markets such as the one in Meridian Township or Grand Rapids.



“Many small town governments and civic associations are realizing that farmers markets bring people downtown and are thus good for all businesses,” Bingen said. He also sees a “growing recognition by local groups that farmers markets offer opportunities for small farmers and access to fresh, good food.”



Finally, Bingen said, the spread of hoop houses and the consequent lengthening of the growing season has helped make farmers markets more viable.



How big can farmers markets get? If they continue to spread and grow, can they put a serious dent in the state’s, or the nation’s, long-distance food distribution system?



Bingen was skeptical. For one thing, he said, local and regional farmers would have to significantly ramp up their production “so they could (be) reliable suppliers to local food retailers.” He sees other problems.



“Lower income groups still have limited transportation access to these markets,” Bingen said. “The Double Up Food Bucks program is fantastic, but people have to have easy access to the markets first.”



In the spirit of farmers market networking, the South Lansing market is finding new ways to get at that problem. Beginning this month, one of the market's community partners, Mt. Hope United Methodist Church, will donate a bus to make two runs a month from Summer Place — a townhome complex at the corner of Waverly and Jolly roads where the majority of the residents are resettled refugees — to bring residents to the market.



For all their new ideas, the wine, artisanal soaps and pour-over coffee, the appeal of farmers markets runs to the refugees’ old world roots.



“It’s like an open-air bazaar. It’s like being at home,” Dunbar said. “They use their Double Up tokens and they barter.”



To find a farmers market in your area, go to:


mifma.org/find-a-farmers-market


To learn more about Farmers Markets at the Capitol, go to


mifma.org/farmers-markets-at-the-capitol



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