ATLANTA, GEORGIA — It was the first time husband-and-wife team Andrew and Christina Norman had brought the vegetables grown on their Covington, Ga., farm to the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, and it did not look promising.
On a rainy Saturday, they were the only vendors there without a tent.
Yet that did not stop a steady stream of customers eager to buy their organic beans, heirloom tomatoes and Brussels sprouts from descending on their tables, cash in hand.
"I was in the wine business, which in the course of the last two years has tanked," Andrew Norman says. "The only other skill I have is farming, and we had to do something to pay our mortgage."
The Normans had sold their produce to Atlanta-area restaurants but never directly to the public.
"It was a lot of fun," Norman says, adding he made about $500 on that rain-soaked day.
Although farmers are struggling during the economic downturn, neighborhood markets are booming. Peachtree Road is one of at least three dozen such markets in the Atlanta metropolitan area, according to localharvest.org, a website that tracks farmers markets.
Nationally, farmers markets are soaring, buoyed by a growing interest in local foods and sustainable farming, says University of Wisconsin-Waukesha anthropology professor Kathleen Bubinas, who studies the markets' economic impact.
At the Peachtree Road market, tents snaked around the parking lot in the shadow of high-rise office buildings as vendors offered organic produce, baked goods, fresh lamb and eggs, as well as handmade crafts and jewelry. Farmers chatted with favorite customers, most of whom brought children or dogs, or both.
The parking lot of the Cathedral of St. Philip Episcopal, which hosts the market, was full by 9 a.m. despite the rain. "We come here frequently," said Hank Boughner of Atlanta, who roamed with daughters Isabelle, 8, and Madeline, 5. "It's fun to talk to farmers and talk about their food. The guy over there has jalapeño pesto that's really good."
Market manager Lauren Carey says about 800 shoppers and about 40 vendors come every week. The market is the brainchild of Atlanta restaurateurs Linton and Gina Hopkins, who founded it in 2007 with help from church members eager to offer fresh produce to the community.
Among the customers was Joel Schellhammer, an Atlanta management consultant, who browsed with his wife, Allie, and their 1-year-old daughter, Catherine. Schellhammer says books such as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma have made people "more interested in knowing where the food that they are putting in their bodies is coming from." Pollan's 2006 best seller tracks food from four meals from their source to the table.
Schellhammer says some market prices are higher than he might pay at a supermarket but paying a little more makes more sense than "flying fruit halfway around the globe."
Alex Szecsey of A&J Farms in Douglasville, Ga., began a garden in 1979, guided by an organic gardening magazine. He began selling his produce from his 1-acre farm at farmers markets a decade ago and has watched demand grow for his baby eggplants and arugula. The farm is successful enough now to be a full-time occupation for him and his son, Jonathan.
Jonathan Szecsey enthusiastically snapped off a leaf of peppery arugula for a customer to try. It's a best seller, he says. "I usually can spot my arugula customers. It's usually a mother about 35-39," he said. "They will come straight for it. They love it."
from USA Today
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