Local Farmers Markets

SuDocQueen@evpl — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:39:00 GMT

Most of us know our local commercial farmers markets, the type that have an established retail location, the ones you can find in the yellow pages, but what about the ones that are gatherings of smaller sellers? The ones that bring their produce to town for sale one day a week? Those don't normally show up in the local yellow pages, so how do you find them?

The USDA has created a database to help people with that. http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ First enter the zip code you want to search in and choose the radius you want to search, anywhere from 5 to 200 miles. You'll get a list that includes the name of the market, its city and state, and a link to its website if it has one. After the list comes up, you can narrow the results by the type of produce (click the file tab that says "Products Available") and/or the type of payment accepted. If you're interested in seeing more details on a particular market on the list, click on the little blue box to the left of the market's name. You will get a pop-up window with the location of the market, times of operation, products for sale, directions, and additional miscellaneous information. This is, of course, assuming that the market has supplied that information to the database.

All in all, I found this a very fun and easy database to use. I do wish it included the markets that have established retail centers, but maybe those aren't strictly farmers markets...?

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Local Farmers Markets