Fresh is in, and it’s easy to find in West Virginia. From a few truck beds on the side of a road to a year-round marketplace, farmers’ markets are enjoying their day in the sun.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture counted about 55 tailgate markets and 59 “farm stands” last summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also counted growing numbers — from 1,775 in 1994 to 4,385 in 2006.

Farm Interest

“I would say the history of farmers’ markets only goes back so far, because at a certain point, everyone was a farmer,” said Buddy Davidson, spokesman for the state’s Department of Agriculture.

Farmers’ markets are common facilities or areas where several growers gather on a regular basis to sell all varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables and other locally grown products straight from their farms to consumers.

They’re becoming the vendor of choice as the result of a consumer movement toward locally grown food, “green consciousness” and public awareness of food safety.

Dan Woodrum, assistant director of the Department of Agriculture’s Marketing and Development Division, said all farmers’ markets are unique, but they’re united in their efforts to keep local producers in business and provide fresh products, which are becoming easier to sell.

“I don’t have any statistics on this, but I think you would find, historically speaking, from a transition of a tailgate farmer with a roadside stand to a cooperative effort through marketing, facilities, traffic and a conglomeration of growers, farmers’ markets are really a destination for the consumer,” Woodrum said.

Jean Smith, director of the department of Agriculture’s Marketing and Development Division, said farmers’ markets are as unique as the people buying and selling.

She said the department is not an umbrella for markets, but it tries to make the process as painless as possible.

“We make folks aware of rules that govern their particular county or city as to what particular licensing is required,” Smith said. “We help them in dealing with what products can be sold by count or by weight.

“It sounds so complicated, but it really isn’t. We live and breathe it every day, and the thing I’m most proud of with our staff and the whole department is we hold people’s hands.”

City government, county commissions, extension services and private individuals all run farmers’ markets in West Virginia. The Department of Agriculture only runs a few. The year-round Charleston market, Capitol Market, is run by the state, and the Legislature recently appropriated money for more.

Smith said Kearneysville will have one through the Jefferson County Development Authority, a Flatwoods Farmers’ Market is in the making and the third would be in Philippi through the efforts of the USDA’s conservation districts in that area.

“They’re all fueled by the intense interest we all have now in where our food comes from,” Smith said. “That’s why the farmers’ market face is changing and growing in West Virginia.”

Smith said about five years ago, the USDA began granting money for its Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program. Coupled with the WIC farmers’ market nutrition program, money for fresh fruits and vegetables found its way to local farmers. Davidson said the WIC and senior farmers’ market programs bring about $500,000 to the state each year.

What products disappear most quickly at West Virginia farmers’ markets?

“Well, this is just Jean Smith’s opinion, but I think it’s going to be corn in the summer,” Smith said.

“Judging from the line at the Capitol for free corn roast day, I’d agree,” Davidson said.

Visitors’ Dollars

And just how many people are buying their fruits and vegetables from a farmers’ market?

“I think more people go than we know,” Smith said. “Huntington would be a perfect example; their market opens at 7 a.m., and the majority of their produce is sold out by 8:30.

“They all work very hard to incorporate activities and contests to bring their customers back.”

According to Tom McConnell, director of the West Virginia Small Farm Center at the West Virginia University Extension Service, West Virginians spent $6.8 billion on food in 2007 — $3,700 apiece.

“It looks to me like what we need to do with our small farms, and farmers’ markets are a great place to start, is capture as much of that as we possibly can,” McConnell said. “These are always estimates … but in 2005, we had about 35 farmers’ markets, and they had direct sales of $1.75 million.

“My buddies down the hall started playing around with that (number), and the total impact was $2.4 million. … We concluded that it really amounted to 69 full-time jobs, and then all of a sudden, keeping our farm families on the farm turns into an economic opportunity.”

McConnell said the state’s farmers’ markets had about $4 million in sales in 2008, and a few things had changed.

“Our plant breeders, our horticulturalists … they’re leading the way with more products, more products, more products,” he said. “I think that our farmers, our farm families, are beginning to trust this whole enterprise.

“They have confidence that they can make money and help support their families.”

Smith said the state’s farmers are learning to be innovative.

“Lots of folks are learning to garden and farm in spaces that 30 years ago we would’ve never thought about, and our traditional farms are becoming more aware of the different items they can grow,” she said.

McConnell said while West Virginians still will want strawberries off-season or tropical fruits such as pineapple, buying produce at a farmers’ market has an effect.

“We see the number of vendors and producers at the farmers’ markets growing, so the more product you move out of there, the more room there is for another family to join in,” he said. “And we can’t help but think that fruit and vegetables picked at their prime have got to be more nutritious. … There are so many quality-of-life aspects.”

Cheryl Brown, an agri-marketing professor and economist at WVU, said farmers’ market sales have impact — no matter how small.

“For some farmers, this could be the difference between their kid going to college or not with that extra couple of thousand dollars during the summer,” Brown said. “It could impact their ability to buy health insurance, a new truck they buy from some business in the neighborhood.

“We may not be talking about farmers making a living on that … but it can really add to the quality of life and the economic situation of the farmers.”

Buy Fresh, Buy Local

The state Department of Agriculture recently awarded the West Virginia Farmers’ Market Association a grant to start a statewide chapter of the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” program.

“A national trademark of this group called ‘foodroutes’ developed, with lots of focus groups, this logo and these graphics,” Brown said. “This red and blue label that’s supposed to look sort of like those old-timey fruit crates is the logo with West Virginia foods on it.

“They actually had to design a golden delicious apple, because it wasn’t part of their stock pictures, and we said we couldn’t have a red apple.”

Brown said the program has templates and guidelines, developed through market research, which West Virginia farmers’ markets can access. She said many markets ordered banners with the logo and the market name on it, and restaurants may be able to use the logo if they’re selling meals prepared with fresh, local food.

“The idea is to get people thinking about buying local food from people they know in their community and really getting the excitement ramped up even more for going to your farmers’ market or patronizing a restaurant,” she said.

Brown said the idea of local could be relative when it comes to farming and produce.

“People tend to think geographically, not politically,” she said. “I ask my students this as part of an exercise, and a lot of them will say within the county, some say within the state.

“If you’re in Wheeling, of course Ohio and Pennsylvania are local. There’s a young man from the Wheeling farmers’ market on our committee, and he said none of their farmers are from West Virginia.”

Paul Mock, with Mock’s Greenhouse in Berkeley Springs, said the Washington, D.C., area is local to him.

“For me, I’m only 125 miles from the Beltway, and that’s where I gather most of my research and energy,” Mock said. “That’s what has allowed me to expand for each of the three seasons, and that’s what makes me the second-largest hydroponic grower in West Virginia.

“Plus my wholesale side has allowed me to impact Morgan County’s economy.”

Mock said he did landscaping and water gardening in Berkeley Springs in 2003, and he sold garden plants and perennials and promoted his landscaping business when he entered the Berkeley Springs farmers’ market in 2005.

He began to construct a greenhouse and in 2006 began to sell hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce.

“Since that time, I have tripled my greenhouse production of hydroponics,” Mock said. “Now over 99 percent of it is sold out of the county, but that last section of percent is what I sell Sunday at the Berkeley Springs farmers’ market.”

Mock said he has seen and heard the overall sales had increased at the farmers’ market, but he agreed that each market is different.

“I would say 30 percent of our traffic on a Sunday market is tourists that are in town,” he said. “We see between 400 and 700 people on Sundays … holiday weekends can go as high as 1,200, … but the Northern Virginia farmers’ market will have 3,000 or 4,000 people in a four-hour period.”

Produce Progress

McConnell said he helped create the state’s Farmers’ Market Association about three years ago to bring farmers’ markets together to meet and share ideas.

He said about half the known markets in West Virginia are members, and they recognize the lack of standardization.

They wonder whether it’s always necessary since each seems to find its own niche for progress.

McConnell said Linda Whaley, food program manager and training officer for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, is helping create a standard operating procedure for selling each food.

“If it’s in writing, a farmer can get a hold of that and be prepared,” McConnell said. “From our end, we’re all grow more, go, go, go. From their end, it’s public safety.”

Davidson said he believes the evolution of farmers’ markets will move toward larger, year-round extended season markets. Brown said some products aren’t in West Virginia farmers’ markets yet, such as fish or cheese.

“There’s one issue that we’re trying to work out, and that has to do with health departments and being able to sample,” Brown said. “Some of these tomatoes, some of them look pretty weird, with purple and green, and they taste fantastic, but people look at them and wonder if they’re even ripe.”

Brown said she thought West Virginia’s farmers’ markets have potential, but all their dots have yet to be connected.

“Certainly farmers’ markets are community, social, wonderful things to have,” she said. “I always have to allow for at least an hour because you’re going to run in to people and chat.

“We have to find pathways to make it work.”

McConnell said there is more excitement about farms, vegetables and fruit than he’s seen in 35 years.

“This is truly a revolution that we’re seeing right now,” he said. “I think that what we’re experiencing right now is absolutely the tip of the iceberg.

“Our small farmers have sacrificed for years to maintain that lifestyle, so this gives them an opportunity to be successful.”