Farmers’ markets bursting with freshness

Published 12:04 am Sunday, July 3, 2016

VIDALIA — As he’s making a sale to one customer, he’s warning the next in line to make sure she watches her socks before she takes a bite of that cantaloupe — it might just knock them off.

Buddy Miller of Waterproof, La., helped start the Delta Farmers’ Market at the Old Courthouse in Vidalia approximately 10 years ago, and today he has a stand so popular he needs a covered trailer behind him loaded with peaches, tomatoes and yes, cantaloupes. He’ll have pecans later in the year.

“I think it’s because we treat the produce the way God intended it — we let it grow until it is ripe,” Miller said about the market’s popularity. “We’re not picking them in the condition that allows you to ship it for 2,000 miles.”

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That attention to detail pays off, said customer Emma Jackson of Vidalia, who comes every week to get peaches and tomatoes.

“There’s really just no comparison to what you buy here compared to the grocery store,” she said. “If you can’t smell it, it’s not any good.

“But when you can smell those peaches from several stalls away, you know they are going to be good.”

Both farmers’ markets in the Miss-Lou are entering peak season, which means the selection of fresh fruits and vegetables pick up. Helen Brooks, the marketing coordinator at the Natchez Farmers’ Market, said people come in for the tomatoes, purple hull peas, squash, peaches, sweet corn, cucumbers and cantaloupe, but they have a lot more they end up grabbing when they arrive, like potatoes, green beans, blueberries and figs.

“We have a Facebook page, but I don’t really have to advertise — people know what’s growing this time of year and they start coming out,” she said. “We get quite busy this time of year.”

And you never know what you’ll find. Joe Bondurant of Sicily Island said he was in Vidalia on a mission for green striped cushaw, which makes for an excellent pie. He said they’re plentiful in Georgia, but he’s had a time finding them here.

Then Bondurant met James Cassimere of Monterey, who had three of them at his stall.

“You can find stuff that you just can’t find in the stores,” Bondurant said. “And what you can get is a lot fresher here than the store.

“It’s coming right out of the garden with a lot of care — it’s more healthy.”

Cassimere said he’s been participating in the market for approximately three years, and the 67-year-old has been farming all his life.

“I love gardening — it gives me exercise,” he said. “It also gives me good food — the best. People say I’m healthy as a bullfrog.”

And of the items spread out before him — including tomatoes, eggplant, okra, garlic, watermelon and peppers — you are only getting the best.

“If it’s bad, it’s going to the hog,” he said. “I like the people here, you get to meet people from all over. I make good money.”

On the other end of the spectrum, it also gives people like Sophie Webber, 13, a chance to start her business. The Cathedral School student makes and sells bath salts, salves and teas.

“I grow my own herbs in my yard,” the Vidalia resident said. “I have lavender, sage, thyme, mint, peppermint, rosemary and oregano.”

Webber said she’s learned a lot in the past year since she started practicing this, and she loves the farmers’ market experience.

“Meeting new people and getting to explain what all of this means is my favorite part,” she said. “Business has been going pretty good. I’ve even had some businesses approach who want to sell my products in their stores.”

Miller said when you spend a dollar buying non-local food, only about 14 cents ends up staying in the local economy. But when you spend that same dollar at the farmers’ market, approximately 60 cents will stay local.

“Not only are we providing better food, but we’re also keeping a lot more local,” he said. “And you have to consider, a lot of that produce from the grocery store is sending money out of the country.”

Brooks said the Natchez market has approximately 14 growers right now and others who make products that are in the store year round. She said business has been increasing every year.

“For the last seven years, we have been increasing on a yearly basis,” she said. “In both the number of farmers who participate and in the customers looking for fresh fruits and vegetables.

“The number of B&Bs and restaurants getting their produce here has also increased — Regina Charboneau (Twin Oaks) and René Adams (Rolling River Bistro) are regulars.”

Concordia Parish County Extension Agent Kylie Miller said the farmers’ market is an important resource in this area, and she’d like to see more people come out and support the local farmers each Wednesday.

“I think in our area, we have grown up eating fresh vegetables and fruits from people’s gardens, so it’s a way of life,” she said. “People remember that their parents had vegetable gardens growing up.

“We’re preserving the old ways that have been around for years in a time where everyone is getting busier and busier.”