Winter Farmer's Market is Alternative to Supermarket

Cris Carl, Networx

Three years ago, Andrew Huckins took on the task of managing a winter farmer’s market in Northampton, Massachusetts. “We needed a winter market. It wasn’t much work because everybody was ready for it,” said Huckins. Housed every Saturday in the basement of Thorne’s Marketplace, a three-story collection of shops, the space is filled with a wide mix of shoppers and wares. There are colorful arrays of greens, root vegetables, yarns, cheeses, breads, mead and more.

“The winter farmer’s market has created an ongoing connection with our customers, and it’s nice to maintain that all year long,” said Whitney Shepperd, of Chicoine Farm in Easthampton, MA.

The connection between the farmers and their customers has created a community experience you won’t find in a supermarket or big box store. Rachel Robertson-Goldberg of Crabapple Farm in Chesterfield, MA, said that the farmers and other vendors get to know what their customers want and then they can tailor their crop production to their customers. “People can come week after week, month after month to get fully local foods year-round,” said Huckins.

Huckins said that he really sees the winter farmers market as a “community center or hub…it’s the relationship between the farmer and the customers that’s important,” he said, adding, “This is a way to re-humanize the economy for food production and consumption.”

Robertson-Goldberg said that Massachusetts, once-upon-a-time, used to be able to produce most of its food. “The winter farmer’s market seems like a new-fangled idea, but really, it’s the supermarkets that are,” she said.

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Patricia G.

10:36AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

Great post!! Thanks a lot!

send a green star

Amber B.

6:57AM PST on Feb 25, 2012

awesome I wish we had one here!

Past Member .

9:08PM PST on Feb 23, 2012

That is good for consumers and producers.

Miriam W.

4:12AM PST on Feb 23, 2012

I'd love to have one of these near me!

Anand Y.

9:22PM PST on Feb 22, 2012

It is good that the West is looking towards East in many ways. Here, in India, it is common knowledge that most of the villages and towns have something called weekly shandies where farmers sell their farm products. In other places many other household items are also sold. I am seeing this for more than six decades. In fact, as my father used to tell us, the weekly shandies were a great source for buy/sell and livelihood for many and were the only source of purchases. They were a great occasion for rendezvous too!

This shows the open mindedness of the westerners. They are willing to learn and adopt anything that is good for the society. Kudos to them!!

Dominic C.

4:47PM PST on Feb 22, 2012

Healthy and fresh food.

Tracy G.

11:26AM PST on Feb 22, 2012

That's great. I love farmer's markets.

Sue H.

10:50AM PST on Feb 22, 2012

There are too few Winter Farmers Markets.

Christine C.

9:35AM PST on Feb 22, 2012

Thanks!