Farmers market creates 'Mayberry Experience'

SANDPOINT — There’s fresh produce and then there’s the kind of produce you buy directly from the person who grew it.

That second category has been the specialty of the Sandpoint Farmers Market for the past 26 years.

With more than 70 vendors — including food and arts & craft merchants — on peak season Saturdays, the market has spilled over the boundaries of Farmin Park to include a section of Oak Street on the south side of the public space. This year, the twice-weekly event also includes vendors around the fountain at Jeff Jones Square next door to the park.

Market season will continue for another six weeks, said manager Maegan McLaughlin, with the final fling taking place at “Harvest Fest” on Oct. 11. Peak time for the Sandpoint Farmers Market is generally considered to take place in July and August, when summer activities are at their apex and tourists flood the town.

For local customers, though, the true peak season is just beginning.

“We taper off at the beginning of September, because people are going back to school and the tourists are going home,” McLaughlin said. “But that’s when our farmers have the most stuff to sell.”

Tomatoes galore, potatoes aplenty, as well as cucumbers, beans, squash, corn, onions and enough different varieties of carrots, beets, turnips and parsnips to make choosing difficult.

“As far as produce, we have pretty much everything right now,” said the market manager. “We still have huckleberries and elderberries are coming on.”

To stand back and watch the market come together at the park is a little like watching the circus come to town. Vendors start to arrive about 90 minutes before opening time and immediately set about getting their booths ready for customers.

“On Saturdays, I ring the bell at 9 a.m., and they know they better be ready, because people are standing there holding out their money,” McLaughlin said.

Buyers have found that the early bird gets the best selection. That explains why locals usually have their shopping taken care of before visitors start to arrive.

“The serious shoppers are in line by 9 a.m. and the tourists start to roll in around 10 a.m. or 10:30,” said the manager. “By noon, a lot of people are heading for the lake. There are ebbs and flows of traffic all day, but it seems to always follow that pattern.”

Diane Green, of Greentree Naturals, has been part of the Sandpoint Farmers Market for 25 years. Her two-acre farm is one of three certified organic farms that sell produce there each week. Green also teaches a sustainable agriculture class through the University of Idaho — a course she described as being responsible for “growing farmers.”

 Approximately one-third of the produce vendors at the market come from the ranks of former students, she added.

“It’s amazing how the market has grown,” said Green. “I’m thrilled to see so many next-generation farmers.”

Growing food is as much a labor of love as it is a business proposition, according to Green, especially when it’s being done for a small number of consumers.

“It’s not for the weak,” she said. “Everyone who’s growing and selling at the farmers market is doing it because they love it. You can’t work this hard and not love what you do.”

The rewards come in more than just monetary packages. One thing that keeps Greentree Naturals coming back is the fact that the small farm feeds up to 100 people each week during market season, according to the owner’s calculations.

“I like feeding people,” she said. “And I love it when they say, ‘That’s the best sweet corn I ever tasted.’”

As the second president of the Sandpoint Farmers Market — a position she held for three terms — Green was the catalyst for hiring a market manager and putting rules and regulations into place. Those guidelines are still in place as the event continues to grow. More than 100 vendors now make up the market roster and each of them had to go through an application process to make the list. Food and arts & crafts vendors also must be juried before getting approval for a booth space.

The makeup of the booths changes from year to year, McLaughlin noted.

“It’s constantly shifting, but one thing the board has emphasized is that we are a farmers market and we will stay top-heavy on farmers — we exist for them,” she said.

“That’s why I like to come down to the Sandpoint Farmers Market,” said Mitch Rivkin, who has about three acres in production at his certified organic Solstice Farms in Bonners Ferry. “I’ve been doing this one for about 14 years.”

Along with the focus on farm-grown food, Rivkin and others appreciate the tight ship at the market, which ensures that approved vendors don’t have to compete with anyone who might just appear at random with a few boxes of vegetables to unload.

“People sometimes think they can just show up and sell, but that would be absolute chaos,” said McLaughlin, adding that all vendors pay a seasonal membership fee, plus 6 percent of their daily sales. Beyond that, nearly all of the vendors toss a few bucks in the musicians’ tip basket that makes its way around the park on market days.

“They’re grateful for the musicians being there and it’s a way for them to say, ‘Thanks,’” the manager explained. “Music helps people to linger at the market — and the more they linger, the more they buy.”

Taken as a whole — the music, the open-air venue, the personal exchange between buyer and seller — the Sandpoint Farmers Market creates what McLaughlin calls “a Mayberry Experience.” From the board’s point of view, it’s important to keep that feeling alive.

“We’re happy to be growing, but we never want to lose that,” said the manager.

Green, meanwhile, stressed that community support is the bottom line for an event that, for many, has come to represent all that is good about life in Sandpoint.

“That support is crucial in the development of a secure, local food system,” the farmer said. “In the past two years, we have more farmers than we’ve ever had at the market. But, at the end of the day, I see a lot of those same farmers packing up food and taking it back home.

“When the summer bounty is on, the community should be down here shopping at the market and supporting it by buying our vegetables.”

The Sandpoint Farmers Market runs on Saturdays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 3-6 p.m. at Farmin Park, located on Oak Street between Second and Third avenues.

Upcoming events include “Taste of the Market” on Saturday, Sept. 13, and the “Harvest Fest” celebration to close the market season on Oct. 11. On Nov. 15, the market will team up with Forrest M. Bird Charter School to host a “Holiday Market,” with root crops, “keeper” crops such as cabbages and winter squash and arts & crafts booths, with music and catering provided by students from the charter school.

For more information, visit the market online at: www.sandpointfarmersmarket.com.