Summer comes with a checklist. Don’t think so? Wait until the end of the sweltering season, whether that is the start of school, Labor Day or the first hard frost, and there will be at least one or two things you missed. In 2021, there was the drive in three or four times, this year you may have traded that late night popcorn for more time at the lake. I have no complaints with my “list” thus far. A bonus comes when an unexpected or serendipitous opportunity happens.
Farmers markets have been the wild card as my family has traveled to other destinations in recent weeks. We like to pursue the vendors’ wares and usually leave with a unique or yummy find that would not have been available at a similar venue back home. While these gatherings have a similar atmosphere each location and occasion has its own character.
Farmers markets offer the best of agriculture on a local level as well as related home-based businesses. Like efforts to support small community and downtown merchants, this is a way to shop local, well at least for the locale where vendors have gathered that day.
Overall, this setup is more environmentally friendly. Produce arrayed on the grower’s table has not traveled hundreds or thousands of miles with the corresponding carbon footprint to be there. The farmer or rancher can discuss exactly how their lambs, pigs and cattle are raised – meat cooler labels do not offer the same insight.
For 2022, so far, we have stopped at farmer’s markets in three states: Fort Robinson (Nebraska), Toledo (Washington) and Rapid City (South Dakota). The first on the list is an annual market event, and larger than the other two, with more of a craft show/vendor fair vibe. Shane Keene sang country songs as visitors decided whether to start inside the rebuilt barracks or along the lane outside.
We stopped at Fort Robinson on the way to Washington state. While traveling there, Mount St. Helens was a day trip destination. A few miles off the interstate we stopped at the small town of Toledo (there were several places on the trip with the same name as larger or more famous cities). Located in a parking lot near the river, this farmers market opened the same time every Thursday through autumn. Eating lunch at a picnic table, we watched as a local law enforcement officer checked everything over as a sign stated “no early sales.” Just after the advertised time we walked over. There were handmade games, locally roasted coffee and a range of fresh produce, including eggs and meat as well as baked goods, essential oils and soaps and other items I don’t recall. A man sitting at a general information booth was helpful.
The Rapid City farmers market is an occasional stop. This time we opted to see what they had on the way to an all-day concert in Memorial Park. A former Alliance resident, who now lives near Chadron, was there and we spent a few minutes at his table. We completed the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Box Butte program together in the late ‘90s. Back then he also offered weekly subscriptions to access much the same farm fresh meat and produce he was selling at the market that Saturday.
It has been years since Alliance hosted a regularly scheduled farmers market. People selling pumpkins or sweet corn are common sights, yet there is no coordinated effort to create that seasonal setting. No doubt, these home based operations put a lot of work into in-person selling. How many local vendors sell at farmers markets in the area that could find more business with an opportunity like that in Alliance? Until the conditions are right for a farmers market to grow here, there are ways to find local, environmentally friendly meats, products and produce ranging from Box Butte County honey at the museum to treats from local bakers on the Bricks downtown.