Heavy-Duty Nets To Protect Pedestrians At Santa Monica Farmers Market

Nearly eight years after an elderly driver sped through the Santa Monica Farmers Market, killing 10 and injuring dozens, the city is poised to install new signs, highway-style barricades and "dragnets" capable of stopping errant vehicles.
The system, in the planning for three years, is slated to be in place by the end of May at entrances to the downtown markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The key new safety feature will be nets, resembling those on tennis courts, with heavy-duty cables running across the top and bottom. Patterned after the arresting gear used to snare jets landing on aircraft carriers, the dragnets are designed to catch and stop vehicles — even those traveling at high speeds — without serious injury to the driver.
"We created what we felt would be the most effective and nonlethal way to stop a car from entering the market," farmers market supervisor Laura Avery said.
George Russell Weller was 86 on July 16, 2003, when he crashed his Buick LeSabre through a wood-and-plastic barricade and plowed through pedestrians at the popular open-air market. Investigators determined that Weller mistook his gas pedal for the brake and accelerated for about 20 seconds along 21/2 blocks of Arizona Avenue between 4th Street and Ocean Avenue. He was convicted in 2007 of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and was sentenced to five years' probation.
A year after the calamity, federal transportation safety officials found that the city's 18-year-old plan for keeping traffic off that portion of Arizona was inadequate, with warning signs that were too small and posted too close to the market. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the absence of a rigid protective barrier system, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.
Ultimately, the city of Santa Monica and other defendants agreed to pay $21 million to settle dozens of civil lawsuits arising from the crash.
Soon after the crash, Santa Monica stationed police officers and vehicles at the entrances. The city decided against installing bollards like those on the Third Street Promenade, saying they could harm motorists and prevent access by emergency vehicles.
The Dragnet barrier selected by Santa Monica has been used for years in New York and Michigan to seal off highway construction zones. In Wyoming, Hawaii and Massachusetts, the system is used to stop runaway trucks.
"We've caught everything from motorcycles to school buses and tractor-trailers in the nets," said Michael Kempen of Impact Absorption, the New York company that sells the technology for civilian use.
Although the city had hoped to launch the $219,000 safety system on Saturday, officials decided that workers needed more training in how to put up and take down the two nets that will run across each entrance. Avery said the city is also designing and building carts to help ferry the equipment to market entrances.
"It's been three years in the design, manufacturing and implementation," said Kate Vernez, assistant to the Santa Monica city manager. "This could be a model, and we need to get it right."
from The Los Angeles Times

Growers Reap Fruits Of Labor At Farmers Markets

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

Bright Flavors Come Fresh From The Farmers Market

MISSOURI - Meander through a farmers market, and you may notice your thoughts about fruits and vegetables evolving. Garlic scapes, 30 varieties of apples, white peaches, salmon-colored raspberries, 14 varieties of beans, six varieties of corn. ... Over the course of the growing season, you'll see these and more.
When you buy directly from farmers, what you won't find is out-of-season produce -- no apples in early May, no asparagus in October. Storage and shipping innovations have made most of what we eat seem seasonless, but when you buy locally grown fruits and vegetables, you'll taste the difference.
"So many people are used to opening up a cookbook, looking at a pretty picture and deciding to create a meal without really thinking about whether or not the ingredients are in season at that time," says Peggy Knickerbocker, co-author of "The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook." Her book is a comprehensive guide to choosing, storing and preparing fruits and vegetables based on their seasonal availability.
When shoppers buy from the farmer, they know the food is at its peak, says Julie Ridlon, director of the Clayton Farmers Market.
"The produce is picked when it has the highest sugar content," usually not more than a few days before it is brought to the market, she says. "When you come to shop, it will be ripe."
Some markets include produce vendors, who buy from middlemen. Soulard Market fits that description. Market master Sandra Zak suggests walking around to explore what's being offered and at what prices. This strategy will give you time to decide what to buy, as well as give you a feel for the market's personality.
"The market is a great place to people-watch," Zak says. "Soulard, in particular, is one of the oldest and largest places in the region where people of every ethnicity, socioeconomic group and religion gather together to feed their families good, wholesome food."
That kind of community is vital, Knickerbocker says, and difficult to find.
"We don't have town squares anymore, and most of us are so busy in this day and age that we don't stop to catch up and spend time with others equally interested in eating well and supporting local agriculture," she says.
Ridlon agrees that visiting a farmers market is a sensory experience.
"It's about smells, sounds, sight, feel and taste," she says. "When you come to the market, everything is alive."
Even those who run the markets can be amazed by the wealth of local produce.
"There are things I saw at the market last year that I've never seen before, things like pineapple tomatillos and countless varieties of squash in all shapes and sizes," says Julia Feder, market master of the Central West End's Green Market.
"We've easily got 20 different varieties of peppers, many of which most people have probably never seen before," she says. "The grocery store only offers the basics, but at the market it's all about variety. Trying something new and different each week is truly a joy."
When in doubt about the produce on display, just ask a farmer.
"The person selling you the produce is the best expert you can get," Feder says. "I encourage people to get to know the farmers and ask them tons of questions. They want you to be as satisfied as possible with their products."
from St. Louis Today