Westside Farmers Market 2010: A Season in review

Last Thursday was the last market day of the 2010 season for the Westside Farmers' Market. We were gifted with a warm and clear day, a perfect chance to look back at the accomplishments in the market's 5th year.

Long shadows tell us it is the last day of the 2010 market season.

The Westside Farmers Market will start its 2011 season on Thursday, June 2. Corinna is an active volunteer with the market and provides an insider view of on the establishment.

This was the first year we accepted Bridge Cards and Project Fresh Coupons. After we scared the bees' nest away from the Ethernet port, it became a weekly ritual to plug in the point of sale machine in order to swipe customers’ Bridge Cards and hand out wooden tokens. In September we doubled the amount of money SNAP users received thanks to Double Up Food Bucks (up to the first $20). More than $1,000 was funneled into the hands of our local farmers, in return for fresh healthy food.

The Cottage Food Law in action.

Corinna Borden

The Cottage Food Law changed the landscape of the market as well. Several vendors choose to augment the weekly offering from their garden with items from their oven. As Brian Steinberg of Inchworm Farms said, “I have probably been able to double my sales this year because I did the Cottage Food bill. It was often the difference between breaking even and making a little money.”

We welcomed an average of 890 people to the market to meet their farmer, to learn about shrimp grown in Okemos, chocolate conched in Dexter, garlic grown in Ann Arbor, Highland Beef grazing in Jackson, or popcorn grown in Clinton.

Every week we recorded our bounty with Real Time Farms. As our local restaurants continue to source their items locally, it is important to have as much information about the farmers and what they grow throughout the season as possible. I look forward to seeing how the website develops for our next season.

Many people have asked these last few weeks why the market does not stay open for a few more weeks, to which my answer is simple.

Seedling, of Homer, offered six different types of cider this past Thursday.

Corinna Borden | Contributor

The convenience of having an open-air market in the afternoon means that by 7 p.m. last Thursday the sun had dipped behind the buildings of the Westgate Mall. Animals sleep by the sun, not the clock, as John Harnois, of Harnois farms, reminded me as we discussed the deepening dark. Unlike chickens, who put themselves to bed, he faced the prospect of chasing sleeping turkeys into the barn when he returned home.