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Fresh food served with a smile

Shoppers can interact with the farmers who grew their food.

By Madeline Webb
May 6, 2008

Columbia resident Brian Richardson holds his son Caleb as he looks at produce sold by Sellmeyer Farm owner Greg Sellmeyer on April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. The Sellmeyer Farm raises vegetables, fruit, eggs and herbs, among other products.

Photo/Esten Hurtle

Columbia resident Brian Richardson holds his son Caleb as he looks at produce sold by Sellmeyer Farm owner Greg Sellmeyer on April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. The Sellmeyer Farm raises vegetables, fruit, eggs and herbs, among other products.

Farmer Ron Bonar, of Versailles, Mo., attends to his stand April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. Bonar represented his farm, R & M Diversified, which sells organic goods.

Photo/Esten Hurtle

Farmer Ron Bonar, of Versailles, Mo., attends to his stand April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. Bonar represented his farm, R & M Diversified, which sells organic goods.

Columbia residents Amanda VanMatre and Jennifer Toohey examine herbs at the Wilson’s Garden Center booth April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. The booths represented farms within a 55-mile radius of Columbia.

Photo/Esten Hurtle

Columbia residents Amanda VanMatre and Jennifer Toohey examine herbs at the Wilson’s Garden Center booth April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. The booths represented farms within a 55-mile radius of Columbia.

Violinist Heinrich Leonhard, bassist Kathy Gordon and guitarist Howard Marshall of Doc Howard’s Fiddle Band play in a tent at the Columbia Farmers Market on April 19. Live music is often a part of the event.

Photo/Esten Hurtle

Violinist Heinrich Leonhard, bassist Kathy Gordon and guitarist Howard Marshall of Doc Howard’s Fiddle Band play in a tent at the Columbia Farmers Market on April 19. Live music is often a part of the event.

Ashland resident Janice Lundquist and her 10-year-old son Sam look at products sold by Country Goodies LLC April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. Country Goodies LLC, which is based in Centralia, sells jams and preserved foods.

Photo/Esten Hurtle

Ashland resident Janice Lundquist and her 10-year-old son Sam look at products sold by Country Goodies LLC April 19 at the Columbia Farmers Market. Country Goodies LLC, which is based in Centralia, sells jams and preserved foods.

It’s drizzling at 8 a.m. Saturday — an early, dark 40-degree morning for the Columbia Farmer’s Market on Ash St. Farmers, bakers and families with children sit on truck beds under tents and huddled in quilts. Some hold steaming cups of coffee and warm eggs for breakfast.

All are cold as they settle into their booths and wait for customers. No one will be packing up early. The market is open rain, shine or snow.

After all, people will drive from near and far to see what fresh produce the market has on any given Saturday.

“That’s what’s so beautiful about the market,” said vendor and Web site creator Eric Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm. “It depends on what’s in season. It depends on who comes out — no two Saturdays are the same.”

Reuter talked about plans to build a structure so the market can be covered, but apparently even a day like today doesn’t drive the crowd away. On this particular morning, the cold rain can’t smother the smells of slow-cooking meats, exotic flowers, mint and fresh-baked brown bread.

There are 58 vendors this Saturday, all from farms within a 55-mile radius of Columbia. All vendors are members of the market and are board approved. The market is producer-only, meaning that the farmers and producers are also the sellers.

“The produce is only from our members, so anything you buy, the person selling it grew it,” market manager Caroline Todd said. “Some markets are run by restaurant owners or run by the city, who make their own rules, but this is run by its members who pay a fee to sell here.”

Or, simply stated in the rules and bylaws of the market’s Web site, “You must have grown or raised the vegetables, fruit, meat, or other raw agricultural products yourself. No resale from auctions or other sources is allowed.”

All the jams, honey, fresh vegetables, big brown eggs, plants, meat, cheese, fruit and crafts are not only as fresh as they come, but hand-packaged, -delivered and -sold. It feels very personal to walk through the rows of squash, lettuce, soaps and jams, as though you are peeking into neighbors’ gardens.

And the business side of it feels nothing like business. Everyone here is a neighbor.

“We’re not interested in having someone truck in goods from states away,” Reuter said. “We are all small start-up farms. This allows families to expand business and generate some tax revenue, and the market makes possibility for rural people.”

Reuter’s table near the entrance is laden with fresh vegetables straight from the garden. He’s selling fresh green onions for $1.75 a bunch, radishes for $1.25 a bunch, loose leaf lettuce for $6 a pound, and fresh orange mint, peppermint and oregano. The icy wind rips through and tears his white board sign down again and again, but it doesn’t matter. Shoppers have come this early to score the freshest produce, and Reuter’s vegetables speak for themselves. They don’t need a sign.

Two booths down from Reuter is Shepard’s Field Bakery and Country Store, which is well worth the dollar and the 15 minutes it takes to decide what you want, because absolutely everything is freshly baked.

The small Christian community and co-op bakery has sent mother-daughter duo Sarah and Debbie Mahaney to market Saturday for the first day of the season. Every Saturday, the girls of Shepard’s Field will take turns selling honey-glazed granola, olive oil wheat bread, molasses cookies, dinner rolls, and apple, blackberry and pecan pies. In the 30 years the family has been baking, they have become certified organic and take great pride in grinding their own wheat.

“Everything you see here was baked by hand in the community,” Debbie Mahaney said, breaking off samples of cookies. “That’s the only way to do it. We believe in good bread.”

It seems that many of the vendors are certified organic, and all of them sell eco-conscious and health-minded products. While this is not a requirement of market members, the market prides itself on bringing in the best and freshest produce.

“We can trust that all the farmers are not going to use pesticides or spray,” Todd said. “It hikes up the cost for them. Not to mention they feed it to their own family. It really is about families selling to other local families.”

This is exactly what shopper Ann Daugherty, a graduate student from Salt Lake City, likes about shopping at the market.

“The important thing is to support the local economy and local farmers, and it’s really good produce,” said Daugherty, who dressed for the cold to come buy fresh mixed greens. “We’re so far removed from our food source. It’s also important to meet the farmers, have a relationship with them, to see and understand where our food comes from and get closer to our food source.”

Today Daugherty bought flowers for Mother’s Day, and she will come back next Saturday for asparagus. When it’s in season, Todd said, farm-fresh asparagus is “one of those things, just like potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, beets, eggs — once you start eating from the market, you can never go back.”

Sarah Newsome and Steven Adamski, both MU food science majors, are giving away bites of Herbal Oats blueberry and honey peanut granola, a product they invented themselves and are licensed to sell.

The granola is what Adamski says is inspired by health and serves as a “functional granola bar.” The bars have all-natural, organic ingredients and no preservatives or added cholesterol, not to mention that the wrapper itself is biodegradable. The bars also have specific ingredients to promote well-being. The honey nut energy bar uses black currant tea instead of processed caffeine. The students sell their bars at Lakota Coffee Company and the Root Cellar in downtown Columbia and are “trying to get on campus and sell them in Brady Commons,” Newsome said.

Today is also their first day of the season at the market.

“This is a real learning experience for us,” Newsome said. “It’s also just so neat to talk to people and see what other local people are bringing.”

Today the most popular items at the Market are grass-fed lamb and goat meat, various scented soaps from Mary Lou’s Farm, brown eggs, honey ice cream, hanging plants, and live entertainment by Eco Gitano. Every Saturday bands come out and play for tips and donations from vendors. The market feels like a block party of neighbors sharing, trading, visiting and, of course, eating.

Asparagus has just come into season and it’s selling rather quickly for 8 a.m. Some of the more exotic things sold recently have been Morel mushrooms, goat cheese and socks and gloves made from alpaca wool.

Seeing what is here on any given Saturday is a large part of the Market’s intrigue. Local shopper Howard Nichols has frequented the market since it first started in 1980. With a smile, he said his favorite item is the sweet corn, but he’ll buy tomato plants, eggs, meat and anything else in season.

“I come every week like clockwork,” Nichols said. “Every week. Got to see what’s here.”

By 9 a.m. the sun is trying to shine through the clouds and cold, and the crowd has tripled. Many people head straight through to buy something specific. They know what they want, and they only buy it from the market. Some are casual shoppers, meandering through the booths with money out, stopping to smell, taste and buy.

Reuter said this is a “pretty good turnout, but we’re overflowing in June and July.”

When the market first started, a Saturday averaged about 2,000 shoppers.

“Now we easily see 4,000 plus a day,” Reuter said, propping up his white board sign with a rock. “The market provides more than business. It is a tourist place. People bring families. They’ll stop by if they’re in town for a football game. We’ve had people come from L.A., Seattle and all over for this dynamic.”