Sigh. Last Saturday, I finally made it to the Hastings Farmers Market. The weather was beautiful, a breeze was blowing, the sun was shining, I found a parking spot. The planets were aligning; all was right with the world.
I was so excited about enjoying a relaxing morning with my family, having something to eat, shopping for the week’s produce, and spending some time with my son and his mates in the playpark. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning.
As I entered the ArtSplash complex, it took only a few moments for my excitement to entirely dissolve; there was not a single farmer in sight. There might as well have been a thunderstorm.
A farmers market with no farmers is like a ham sandwich without cheese on bad bread – extremely disappointing.
It must be said that the farmer-less market was pretty cool. It has all the makings of a monthly event with staying power and it’s convenient for us South Coast folk. There were lots of homemade and created vendors, and the kids’ play park is awesome.
There was something for everyone: food, jewellery and gift items, art, soaps, local beauty products, antiques, coffee, vegetable seedlings, and local wines. But zip, zero, nada, not a vegetable in site.
It is absolutely not cool that with dozens of people hoping to buy farm-fresh produce, there wasn’t a single farmer in sight. The organizer of the market, Billy Hosford, reached out to me in absolute frustration, simply asking if I could see what the issue might possibly be. Personally, from my perspective, I just can’t understand it.
Outlet for farmers
Regularly, we have farmers crying out that they don’t have an outlet for their produce; regularly, farmers decry imported produce. Here we have an orchestrated, not to mention well marketed, effort to provide farmers with a more than affordable venue, with a ready-made customer base for their produce, and none managed to show up. Literally, all a farmer needs to do is turn up, on time, with the produce, it’s that easy. I can’t get my head around it at all.
There just isn’t an excuse. I know Billy and he’s the type of person to put his whole heart into any effort. He’s the type of person who would go out on Saturday morning looking for farmers solely because he knew that people like me would be disappointed when I turned up and discovered there were none.
Running a farmers’ market, be it weekly or monthly, takes determination and effort. The organizers are there to make it a win-win situation for the producer and the consumer, but you can’t have one without the other.
I hope, actually I trust, that there are some small farmers who read this column and who would be willing to start a dialogue on the obstacles that might deter them from seizing an opportunity such as the Hastings Farmers Market, or any other market for that matter.
The next market is in a month’s time. I want to hear from you, and next month I want my basket full of vegetables, or else!