MU farmers market leaves students satisfied

Off-campus farmers market moves to Lowry Mall.

By Kelsey MacDonald

Published April 23, 2009

Farmers brought some extra freshness to campus Wednesday.

Lowry Mall was filled with vendors selling goods ranging from farm-made goat cheese to freshly picked strawberries, all part of the first farmers market on campus.

The event was hosted by the Wellness Resource Center and Sustain Mizzou, but featured booths from other campus organizations, including Greeks Going Green, MU Extension and Campus Dining Services.

"Other campuses have farmers markets and things like that, either regularly or just kind of a one-time event, so we really wanted to just bring it to Mizzou and see how everybody liked it here," Wellness Coordinator Julie Tobias said.

Tobias said she thinks people liked the event.

Missouri Legacy Beef Co. owner Mark Mahnken said his company sold more than 400 hamburgers in two hours.

Goatsbeard Farm intern Sam Stella and Prairie View Bakery owner Samuel Kraybill experienced similar success.

"Everybody likes it," Tobias said of the event. "We just wanted to try just to kind of promote the idea of the farmers market."

The Columbia and Boone County farmers markets open for a few hours every weekend during the market season, but this is the first farmers market on campus. Organizers hoped to minimize fossil fuel use from students who would have attended the event off-campus by having it on campus.

One of the more prominent features of the event was the Missouri Legacy Beef booth, which Mahnken believed to be the best.

"The beef is local beef," he said. "You know where it came from and it's all-natural, never ever any hormones or antibiotics and it's very lean, low fat. And you've got to taste one to believe it."

Mel Blase, whose company Blase Angus provides the cattle to Missouri Legacy Beef, said the process of creating such lean, tender beef is very specific.

"We use DNA analysis, the same as you do on humans, and we select our herd bulls accordingly," he said.

Missouri Legacy Beef also uses wet corn gluten meal, a product of an ethanol plant, which changes the taste and tenderness of the meat.

Blase said they never had a lull in business.

"This is awesome," Kraybill said. "This is five times what we do over there at the farmer's market."

Prairie View Bakery had a variety of products for sale, including flowers grown on Kraybill's farm and baked goods made by his wife.

The local businesses were not the only ones to notice the success.

"I'm really excited to see this on campus," Greeks Going Green President Lauren Hasler said. "I think it's something that students don't really take advantage of off campus and they don't know that it's going on every Saturday morning. So to bring it here and have them see all of the different products that are available, I think is really great."

The event could return next semester.

"It's a great mix of organizational things and vendors," Hasler said. "It's good to remind students of all the different aspects that go into wellness and sustainability."