Saturday, May 8, 2010

West Side Farmer's Market Failure

Dr Desert Flower and I went up the Westgate this morning to visit the advertised "Farmer's Market" after missing it last week, and sadly, it was a waste of time. The displays were:
  • A group of Harleys demonstrating "motor cycle awareness" ??
  • A Kettle Corn vendor trailer
  • A lady selling "local hand maid" purses (perhaps they were)
  • A local beef jerky maker
  • A hand made copper fountain seller
  • A local salsa maker
  • A couple selling chilies
  • The local fire department booth for fire awareness
  • A sad little carnival dunk tank
  • An olive oil bottler
  • A guy who made garden ornaments (like glass & metal butterflies or dragon flies on a stick)
  • A lady selling some kind of local cracker / snack food unleavened type breads
  • A lady with a table of fruit and veggies she obviously just purchased at Sam's Club or Wally World (heads of broccoli wrapped in thick store rubber bands, Dole[TM] Pineapples, 50 cent avocados that had little yellow stickers on them) ... none of them local
We'd gone there with high hopes of finding organic free range eggs, locally grown produce, maybe some local butter, or cream, or milk, or cheese, perhaps getting a business card or website address from a local agricultural co-op or share farm... Nada, nichts, pas de toute, nuthin. Like most things on the West Side of Phoenix, it was a sad little effort, half hearted, to satisfy the lowest common denominator of idiocracy. And there were several other couples walking around like DDF and I: people in causal attire, or business suits, couples without children and with extra income to spend on local, high quality, sustainable farm products. Some had their canvas shopping bags with them (as DDF and I had taken our Sprouts bags). Not much was being bought. When you call it a "Farmer's Market" and no "Farmers" come (except for the couple selling chillies), it's a failure. We need to move to the East side, once we are not as far underwater as the Deepwater Horizon's failed well head is.

3 comments:

  1. holy cow, that's even worse than the Evanston farmers' market. at least some farmers showed up at that one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You may want to check out eatwild.com

    They have a bunch of sources who may deliver or something.

    I know one of my vendors delivers once a week to my house (if I so choose) - but I like to go to the Green City Market.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool, thanks Ame! Sadly, they are all a good drive away, but nice to know they're there. Someday we'll get to the east side... and I will research to see what delivery charges they might have (though I would rather browse myself, than "take whatever is brought").

    ReplyDelete

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