In 2006, the USDA conducted a survey about farmers market sales, performance, organization, composition as part of the USDA National Farmers Market Survey.  Who did they ask?  The ultimate experts on farmers markets: the market managers themselves, of course!  More than 1,200 of them, actually. And the results were compiled into a rich report that [...]

Tags: 2010 Farmers Market Managers Survey, industry trends, statistics

by Max Finberg, Director of the USDA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Farmers market managers can help feed hungry children and families this summer.  The President and First Lady are calling on Americans to participate in the nation’s recovery and renewal by volunteering in their communities through the United We Serve initiative. This national [...]

Tags: hunger, share harvest

In a hardcover worthy of even the most distinguished coffee table, Cooking from the Farmers Market (by Jodi Liano, Tasha DeSerio, and Jennifer Maiser) is a collection of more than 245 recipes for appetizers, main dishes, and desserts, including ones such as Roasted Parsnips with Pears and Hazelnuts, Blueberry-Vanilla Panna Cotta, and Romano Beans with [...]

Tags: appetizers, desserts, Jennifer Maiser, Jodi Liano, main dishes, Tasha DeSerio, Williams-Sonoma Cookbook

You can’t get much closer to the source of your food than canning or preserving it yourself, a new resource emerged this spring which could help farmers markets educate shoppers about the whys and hows of preserving local food. Saving the Seasons is a 288-page book published by the Mennonite Publishing Network, the same folks [...]

Tags: baby food recipes, canning, food preservation, freezer jams, freezing and drying, meat-drying techniques

Toyota announced the 11 farmers markets selected to participate in the second annual nationwide Toyota Farm to Table Tour . The Tour travels to farmers markets across the country to showcase the connection between farmers, chefs, farmers markets, and the communities they serve, and to give market shoppers the opportunity to learn more about Toyota’s hybrid vehicles.

Tags: tour, Toyota

National Farmers Market Week is August 1st-7th, 2010! The Farmers Market Coalition has updated its Markets Are Up! toolkit, including a Press Release Template, Talking Points, and FAQs to help you communicate to the public and spread the word about how your market is benefiting farmers, communities, and consumers. How is your market celebrating?

A farmers market operates multiple times per year and is organized for the purpose of facilitating personal connections that create mutual benefits for local farmers, shoppers and communities. To fulfill that objective farmers markets define the term local, regularly communicate that definition to the public, and implement rules/guidelines of operation that ensure that the farmers market consists principally of farms selling directly to the public products that the farms have produced.

The Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) is seeking a smart, detail-oriented, and creative college student interested in web and media communications for a non-profit with a focus on providing resources and information for farmers market nationwide.

We know that improving the capacity of farmers markets to incubate new businesses, increase fresh food access for families, and dramatically change people’s relationships to food is important to you. We’ve been listening to our members, and we know that the nation’s more than 5,200 farmers markets face a host of challenges, requiring concerted and long-term investments from both public and private funders. For too long, farmers markets have been making miracles happen without reliable funding streams. More than 60% of them are operated exclusively by volunteers.

Recently, there have been businesses offering office support to markets for a fee. Manage My Markets is one of those businesses: a for-profit business that came to markets by request when the Portland Farmers Market asked a local web-based company to help run their rent collection system. Manage My Market staff is designing a system to have online vendor registration, updatable vendor product list, online scheduling (both market side and vendor side), tracking charges and payments, bulk emails, and soon, accounting services.

Tags: Darlene Wolnik, management, managemymarket.com, marketumbrella.org, programs, recordkeeping, software