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The Market:
Farmers
on the Square Market
W. High St and N. Hanover St.
Carlisle, Penn. / map
Wednesdays, 3 to 7 p.m.
Market-Goer: Mark
Thompson
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The good folks of Carlisle,
Pa., would never support a farmers market where only actual farmers
would sell fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses they produced
themselves on their own farms. So said skeptics on the Downtown Development Council,
according to Sandra Miller, who helped launch the producer-only farmers
market that I found alive and well, now wrapping up its
second summer, on the town square in downtown Carlisle. The market was bigger and
busier than ever this year, says Miller, who raises goats on Painted
Hand Farm in Newburg and sells the meat along with
heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables at the market.
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The skeptics on the council, says Miller, were the
brains behind another so-called “farmers market”
that gave it a go in
Carlisle
for a couple of years but flamed out. |
That market occupied a fancy
7,800-square-foot structure, a historic building that was
renovated with hundreds of thousands of dollars of
redevelopment grant money.
As I reported on Seasonal Chef’s Truly
Local blog early last year, while that venue was billed as
a “farmers market” that would showcase the bounty from local
farms, vendors were allowed to sell practically anything they
wanted, from miscellaneous bric-a-brac to cut-rate wholesale
produce trucked in from across the continent. Miller was one
of a small number of real farmers from the region around
Carlisle
who tried to make it at that market, and struggled in vain to
encourage the management to adopt rules that would enable it
to become a truly
local farmers market. They eventually gave up, and made plans to
start a market of their own, to be run by actual farmers.
The Farmers on the Square market is what came of those
efforts. The defectors from the defunct market were joined by
other farmers who didn’t have the stomach to give the other
one a try. “There were resellers at that market, and there
are farmers here who would not sell next to them. It’s a
matter of principle,” Miller says.
The Farmers on the Square market, in contrast, is run by
farmers for the benefit of consumers who want to know where
their food comes from and want to support local agriculture.
As the market’s
web site
declares, “Our vendors live and work within 50 miles of
Carlisle, so ours really is a local market.... Eating fresh
local food is healthier, tastier, enhances life in our
community and supports our economy!”
The market, which started with a dozen farmers, now has as
many as 16. The market grossed $100,000 last year and will top
that by a large margin when all is said and done this year,
Miller says.
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What I Bought:
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Four
varieties of pears (top)
Asian pear, nectarine, plum and pluot (bottom)
Price: $3/lb.
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This
market is the place to go for anyone wanting to try
naturally-raised meat. There are 10 different kinds
of meat from local farmers on sale, says Sandra
Miller, who sells meat from goats that are naturally
browsed on her Painted
Hand Farm. Other types of meat at the market
include grass-fed, organic beef, pastured poultry,
humanely raised veal, as well as rabbit, duck, turkey
and geese. I would have
stocked up, and reported on, the interesting array
of meats at this market. But I’m here at the
start of a road trip that will take me to
Pittsburgh
and up to
Toronto, far from my refrigerator back in
Blawenburg
,
N.J. So I
gravitate towards proteins that are more
transportable, and find what I need in that department
in the form of cheese and edamame soybeans.
| The large bundle of edamame that
I purchased, still on the bush, is from the farm
at
Dickinson
College, one of the mainstays at the Farmers on the
Square market. The college, located a few
blocks west of the square, has a bustling 180-acre
farm outside of town, with six to eight
acres in intensive food production at any
given time. |
edamame
soybeans
Price: $2/bunch
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It produces a significant percentage of the food
served in the dining hall on campus, with plenty
left over to supply a 70-family CSA in town and
to keep a stand at the farmers market well supplied
with an attractive array of produce.
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pineapple
tomatoes
Price: $4 for 3 large
tomatoes
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a
selection of sweet and hot peppers Price: $1
for 10 hot peppers
$1 for 2 sweet peppers
salad
mix
Price: $3/bag
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