A taste of nature in the city

Lansing’s farmers markets are about more than just food — they connect communities as well

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Bunches of fresh-picked Michigan asparagus banded together into little battalions stand at attention on a vendor’s table, sent straight from the farm with marching orders to be cooked by the end of the day. Next to them are carrots so fat they’re fit for a horse. The scent of dill pulls noses toward baskets of herbs wrapped neatly into green beds underneath a neighboring tent. 

Farmers markets are a tradition as wide as the world, as old as history and more prevalent than you might think in the Lansing area. Not that that should come as much of a surprise: Michigan boasts approximately 10 million acres of farmland — roughly the size of Switzerland — and we sit squarely in the middle of it.

The Allen Street Farmers Market, on Lansing’s east end, opened for the season a month ago. The market, in its eighth year, began modestly with five vendors that first season; now close to two dozen farmers and gardeners with locally grown produce pack into a parking lot bazaar every Wednesday throughout the growing season.

Market manager Hollie Hammel says the primary charge of the Allen Street market is to bring fresh, local food to area residents, to "level the playing field for access." The effort also promotes sustainability; priority is given to vendors who produce their own food, and only Michigan grown produce is acceptable.

"We have built a program that connects those dots," Hammel says.

The Allen Street market hums rain or shine with shoppers seeking produce, vendors restocking tables and laughing children darting here and there, creating their own fun with sidewalk chalk or a game of tag.

"It’s like putting up a little street theater every week," Hammel says.  It doesn’t happen, though, without the dedication of a corps of volunteers. Hammel says the market averages 14 to 20 volunteers a week, assisting in setup, operations and teardown.  

Joe Dziubam, 50, lives a couple of blocks from the market’s location at East Kalamazoo and Shepard streets.  He’s a volunteer who logs five to six hours every Wednesday, and says he’s closer to his neighbors because of it. 

"It seems like everyone in a two-block area knows my name," Dziubam says.    

The Lansing area now supports over a dozen seasonal markets, but the landscape looked much different just a few years ago, Hammel says.

"In 2004, when we started, I think it was only the city market and Meridian Farmers Market that were around," she says. 

Things have changed. 

On Thursdays, in the center of Michigan State University’s campus, a small white canopy sprouts up on the lawn in front of the Auditorium Building to shelter produce from MSU’s Student Organic Farm. The non-degree program produces a bounty of over 80 certified organic crops cultivated by students.  

Farm stand manager Kate Rotblat-Whitacre says some shoppers associate farmers markets with pricey produce.  Perception, though, does not always match reality.

"If you shop around farmers markets, you’ll find even better deals than supermarkets," she says.

The organic herbs you’ll find at the MSU farm stand are not only fresher than what you’ll typically see at a supermarket, they’re much less expensive, too. The students, who also join the once-a-month Old Town Farmers Market, display wicker baskets filled with bunches of organic herbs that max out at $1.50. At the grocery store, expect to pay at least $2 for less than an ounce of organic herbs that hang in the produce cooler, sealed in plastic rectangular boxes like little green corpses. 

The Old Town market convenes once a month on Sundays.  The Fresh Lake Whitefish Co., based in Sault Ste. Marie, loads up a half-dozen species of Great Lakes fish and travels to Old Town and other market venues around town. Owner  Mark Ebener, a fish biologist for 30 years who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about fresh water marine life, recognizes farmers markets as a shared human experience.

"What’s more traditional than selling fresh fish in an open-air market?" he says. "They do it in Turkey, in Israel, all over the world — this is keeping with a long tradition."

Ben Tirrell is the kind of vendor market managers love. A third-generation farmer from Charlotte who’s become a regular at the Old Town market, Tirrell sees farmers markets as an opportunity to connect.

"There’s an increasing gap of understanding between people producing food and consumers," he says. Markets have allowed Tirrell to bring visibility to his livestock farm and Charlotte storefront.  Tirrell’s family farm has diversified in recent years from raising just cattle and lamb for meat to producing cow, sheep and goat milk cheeses, an economic decision necessitated by the squeeze of industrial scale farming.  

The Old Town market is about a quarter the size of the  Meridian Township Farmers Market. By opening time at 9 a.m. every Sunday, car doors slam intermittently and a stream of eager shoppers makes its way from a parking lot into a maze of tents and stalls behind township office buildings. It’s the area’s largest seasonal market and perhaps the most diverse.  

Locally farmed shrimp, award-winning pies, kettle corn, produce, handmade soaps, lamb pelts, maple syrup, organic ice cream and even eggrolls are to be discovered underneath and beyond a pavilion stationed near the township municipal complex.

Michigan native Tiffany Threadgould now lives in New York City.  When she’s back in town, she helps her mother sell produce and flowers at the Meridian market, grown from land the family owns in Mason.

Even in one of the world’s densest urban settings, Threadgould is able to buy three-quarters of what she eats from farmers markets.  

"It’s about getting to know where your vegetables come from," Threadgould says.  "We’ve become so far removed from nature."   

Farmers markets are about getting in touch with nature, and, like the South Lansing Community Farmers Market, most emphasize community, too.

Like the Allen Street market, Rita O’Brien says the South Lansing market works to connect residents to healthy food. O’Brien, in her first year as market manager after a stint in AmeriCorps the year before, says attracting families — especially in underserved communities like her own — is important.

"We go for the picnic feel," she says, motioning to the swath of green grass that serves as a backdrop to the market at Benjamin Davis park.

To promote healthy eating, the South Lansing market provides nutrition information and, along with four other markets (Bath, East Lansing, Allen Street and the City Market), participates in Double Up Food Bucks, a project of the Fair Food Network. Shoppers with Bridge Cards may receive up to $20 in matching tokens per day for purchasing Michigan-made produce through the program. 

Daedre Craig, 25, sells produce, flowers and seedlings at the market, cultivated in her own backyard garden in south Lansing. She’s a horticultural graduate student at MSU and insists growing her own food isn’t that difficult.

"This is what I do instead of watch TV," Craig says.

Farming and food production might not make for riveting prime-time television, but unlike much of what we’re surrounded with, it’s absolutely essential.

"We are partners with these farmers," says Allen Street’s Hollie Hammel. She speaks for her market, but she might as well be speaking for us all. "We couldn’t do it without them."

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