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Reaping The Rewards Ethel and Fred Terry faced a dilemma about 14 years ago: They could change the way they did business or risk losing the Orient farm that had been in Fred's family for more than 300 years. Back then, they were wholesaling their produce to places like Boston and paying big fees for transportation and brokers, with little profit to show for it. Clearly, the modern agribusiness approach wasn't working. So the Terrys came up with a retro solution: They decided to cut out the middleman and sell directly to consumers at farmers markets. They began by peddling their fruits and vegetables from a rented stall at a single farmers market at the World Trade Center - and sold out within a few hours. Terry says by doing this they got twice as much as she would have through a wholesaler. Thus encouraged, they began selling their strawberries, tomatoes, corn and green vegetables at seven more markets in the city with similar results. “The farmers markets saved Fred Terry Farms,” says Ethel Terry, who noted that she and her husband now make their living solely from selling at farmers markets. By 1991, Ethel came up with the idea of creating a string of farmers markets on Long Island, so farmers wouldn’t always have to trek into Manhattan. The first Long Island Growers Market opened in Islip in 1991, and her idea, to say the least, has borne fruit: This Thursday she will open the 10th market, this one on the Nautical Mile in Freeport. She has about 25 farmers and vendors who sell at these markets. She’s hardly alone. More are opening amid a nationwide boomlet in farmers markets. There are more than 3,000 farmers markets in the United States, with retail sales of more than $800 million, including about a dozen on Long Island and 52 in New York City. (A partial list is online at www.nyfarmersmarket.com/metro.html). Many of the markets are in the center of suburban downtowns to help attract shoppers. Other markets are in urban areas where residents don't have access to fresh local produce. “They have grown tremendously over the past 26 years,” says Tom Strumolo, deputy director of Greenmarket, a nonprofit group that promotes regional agriculture and is a program of the Council on the Environment of NYC, which is run out of the mayor’s office. The group started with three Greenmarkets in 1976, and now has 31 locations throughout New York City, including one opened last month at MetroTech in Brooklyn and one between Broadway and Church Street in Manhattan to replace the one at the World Trade Center. And on Saturday, Greenmarket opened three more in the Fort Greene and Midwood sections of Brooklyn and at Richard Tucker Square near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Produce sold at farmers markets isn't necessarily cheaper than that found in supermarkets, but consumers who shop the farm stalls say that often for the same money they get fresher and larger quantities of produce. The markets benefit the farmers as much as consumers. “Farmers markets seem to play a role as micro-enterprise incubators,” said Duncan Hilchey, an agriculture development specialist at Cornell University in Ithaca. “They create opportunities at low cost and low risk.” He noted that the founders of Ben & Jerry’s sold their ice cream in the early days at a farmers market. Indeed, many farmers markets are not strictly selling produce. They also typically sell plants, meats, fish, baked goods and jams. The rules are they have to sell only what they “bake, make, grow or catch.” Such is the case for the Villanis of Blue Moon Fish in Mattituck, who sell their catch on Saturdays at the Grand Army Plaza market in Brooklyn and the Tribeca market, as well as Union Square on Wednesdays. “I get a lot of chefs on Wednesdays,” said Stephanie Villani. The markets also serve a public purpose because they participate in a nutrition program for low income mothers with young children who are in federal and state Women, Infants and Children programs, as well as low-income seniors older than 60. Families in the program annually receive a $24 booklet of 12 checks, each with a face value of $2, that can be used to purchase fresh produce at the markets. Eligible seniors receive one booklet of $20 in checks. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s intended to encourage at- risk people to improve their health by giving them access to more fruits and vegetables, says Bob Lewis, chief marketing representative for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets in Brooklyn. He says these coupons have a high redemption rate, and it works as a business proposition, too - a high percentage of families continue to buy at the markets even after they use up the checks. All told, the state expects to issue about $1.2 million of farmers market checks this year to about 53,000 people in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens. The markets also are a boon to organic farmers and consumers, said Patti Wood, who started an organic farmers market in Port Washington last summer. The market runs on Saturday mornings on Main Street at the dock. Wood, who also is executive director of Grassroots Environmental Education Inc., a nonprofit group in Port Washington, said she uses the market as a way to help educate people, as well as to provide an outlet for organic farmers. One such farmer, Chris Walbrecht, who runs the Garden of Eve farm in the hamlet of Northville with his fiancee Eve Kaplan, is going through the organic certification process. He sells at the Port Washington market, as well as the Long Island Growers markets in Hauppauge and Locust Valley and the Greenmarket in Tribeca. “We prefer to go retail,” said Walbrecht. “In a year like this when there’s a lot of rain, you don't know how much you could supply to wholesale and the customer is more flexible than a vegetable broker.” Bill Taylor, a customer from East Islip, bought strawberries and tomatoes on his recent visit to Terry’s on a Wednesday at the State Office Building on Veterans Highway in Hauppauge. He’s been going to the market in Islip for 11 years and works near the Hauppauge market. “I love it,” said Taylor. “Have you ever tasted tomatoes in the supermarket? They’re like cardboard.” So are there any downsides to these markets? “You might run across a situation where the location of the market creates a traffic problem,” said Cornell’s Hilchey. In addition, he said some store merchants at first could be fearful that the market will take away business, but Hilchey says he’s found that the markets actually bring business to an area, and most merchants have embraced them. When Miriam Haas, vice president of Community Markets in Ossining, started her markets in 1991, she heard some of these fears from merchants. But she said now it's hardly an issue at the 12 markets she runs, including ones in Flushing and Jamaica and a new one in Brownsville. Consumers, it turns out, don’t just shop at one place. “What usually happens is they still go to the supermarket,” said Maritza Wellington-Owens, president of ANWA Group in East Harlem, which runs Harvest Home Farmers Markets, with four in the Bronx and one she manages for Union Settlement, a nonprofit organization in East Harlem. In fact, she’s seen some of these same businesses that were once fearful now purchasing produce from the farmers markets. Owens and Haas’ companies are profit-making businesses, and they charge tenants a fee to sell at the markets, as does Greenmarket. The Long Island Growers Market does not. The Greenmarket is a nonprofit, but uses the fees to pay for staff, security, permits and the locations of their many markets. Terry’s group is nonprofit; she does not take a salary and the land is donated by the municipalities, so she does not charge fees. For the others, fees range from $35 to $80 per day, depending on the group, size and location. Each market operates at a given location at least once a week, sometimes more, and most farmers sell at several markets. There are no economic studies done for Long Island and New York City to determine how much these markets make, say experts. But Haas says, “If someone goes to a farmers market and doesn’t make $300 from that day, they should stay home.” Nationally, customers spent an average $17.30 a week at farmers markets, according to a 2000 U.S. Department of Agriculture study. Annual sales per customer nationwide were $306. This could add up, particularly at larger markets like Union Square, which on a Saturday gets more than 30,000 people. Terry says the Long Island markets on a good weather day could get at least 300 customers, many of them repeat customers like Brad Randell of Ronkonkoma. “I like the variety,” says Randell, 43, who shops at the Hauppauge and Huntington markets weekly. “Everything's super fresh, and at least I know where it’s grown.” Terry is always scouting for new markets. She sells at about a half a dozen herself, only one in the city, at Grand Army Plaza. They scaled back on their city markets after the World Trade Center attack wiped out her produce, sales and truck at that Greenmarket location, though her two friends running the booth made it out alive. “We refuse to go back into the city,” said Terry. “It scares us to death. Our long-term goal was to do these on Long Island and that’s what we've done.” Grazing for Markets Where can I find a farmers market in my area? Is the produce really fresh? How can I make sure I get the freshest stuff? Is it all locally grown? Are the prices cheaper at farmers markets? Do farmers offer samples?
[Note: Ellen is a Wisconsin native who returned to Wisconsin after living eight years on Long Island and in New York City. While living at the National Audubon Society’s Scully Science Center in Islip, Long Island, she founded a regional network of farmers’ markets through the Peconic Land Trust.] Related websites: Farmers' Market Federation of New York Council on the Environment of New York City Peconic Land Trust
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