Metropolitan Markets

Metropolitan Markets

words by > Nancy Davidson

When you visit a farmers’ market, you’re probably thinking about fresh produce, luscious fruits and healthy greens. But behind the scenes, what’s available is determined by a set of rules and standards. The purpose of urban markets is to bring fresh, local produce to city dwellers, increase awareness of local products and provide a larger consumer base for farmers. Typically, vendors must grow, raise or make products within a predetermined, limited radius of the city to ensure that everything sold is local.

But Nina Planck, who recently opened two new Real Food Markets (www.realfood.info) in NYC—one in Soho (Lafayette Street between Kenmare and Spring Streets) and one in the West Village (Sixth Avenue between Bleecker and Houston Streets)—has a new set of rules for her markets (held Saturdays from 10am–2pm). Planck’s markets feature regional as well as local products, and the products don’t necessarily have to be sold by the producer: Farmers, purveyors and artisans from all over the Northeast, from Maine to Southern New Jersey, are represented. This means that a shopper can buy tomatoes from a New Jersey farm, cheese from Vermont and put it together on bread made by a NYC baker. Current vendors include Murray’s Cheese, which sells local and regional cheeses and milk; Eden Brook Farms, which sells fresh and smoked trout, scallops and other seafood; and Great Performances, a catering and restaurant business that sells lettuce and tomatoes from its farm, as well as homemade pickles.

But Planck is still strict about the rules. For instance, if a product can be found locally, it must be local. Jam makers must use fruit grown in the region. If a baker uses blueberries in muffi ns, they must be local. The rules matter, according to Planck, because people shop at farmers’ markets to be certain of what they are eating. They want to know where it was produced and what the methods of production are. They want grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chickens, hormone-free dairy and fruits and vegetables that are not treated with chemicals—the kind of food Planck advocates in her recent book, Real Food: What to Eat and Why (Bloomsbury, 2006).

A similar desire for real food drives Sherri Harris, manager of a new market in Moore Square Park (Blount and Martin Streets) in Raleigh, NC. Although there is a state farmers’ market in town, Harris was interested in having a market that focused more on local farmers. So the rules require the seller to live and produce within a 90-mile radius of the city limits. Products must be sold by farmers and artisans themselves, or by someone who works with the product at least one day a week.

No secondhand selling is allowed. The idea, Harris says, is to encourage conversations with farmers. “There are so many terms that shoppers may be unfamiliar with—heirloom, pasture raised, cage free. It’s great for them to be able to talk with the farmers about the practices.”

This fall, you’ll fi nd rutabaga, spinach, squash, chard, tomatoes, turnips, beets, bok choy, cabbage, collards, garlic, kale, lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins and radishes, as well as honey, cows’ and goats’ milk cheeses from Chapel Hill Creamery, ice cream from Lumpy’s, bread from La Farm Bakery, and pasture-raised meats from Coon Rock Farm. The market not only increases awareness of local agriculture, but it is also convenient. Workers can shop for market ingredients for dinner or pick up a boxed lunch.

Farmers’ markets are a relatively new phenomenon in Houston, TX. Several years ago, chef Monica Pope was so eager for a farmer’s market that she started one at her own restaurant. On Saturdays, the Midtown Farmers Market fi lls the parking lot and interior of her restaurant T’afi a (www.ta.#64257; a. com) with produce from local farmers, coffee roasters and other vendors.

State-run markets have also become so popular in Houston that the producers are unable to keep up with demand. Residents can’t get enough of the locally grown arugula, chard and other greens, free-range beef and lamb, cows’ milk and cheeses, fi gs, blueberries and fresh ice cream.

Food writer and former caterer Janice Schindeler sells her prepared foods at several markets in the Houston area.

The organizers, Urban Harvest (www..urbanharvest.org), “prefer that I use as much locally produced items as possible,” she says. She grows her own herbs and trades with other vendors at the market. She will buy unsold eggs from her neighbor or fresh fi gs that won’t last to the next market.

For a real taste of a city, consider an alternative to one or more traditional restaurant meals and take a big bite of the region’s best agricultural offerings.