Farmers Markets Bounce Back
One sure sign of summer is the appearance of farmers markets in cities and towns across Ohio. If the markets this year are not quite back to normal, they at least are making strides in that direction.
In the pandemic summer of 2020, farmers markets were designated as essential businesses, but they were diminished by the circumstances. Under the restrictions at the time, some chose not to open at all. Others had to find new locations that allowed for social distancing. Visitors could get hand sanitizer but no food samples. Online ordering and drive-through pickup began but live music ended. Customers were asked to leave children and dogs at home.
If the business of the markets continued, much of the fun had been lost.
As more Ohioans get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the state drops restrictions, Edible Columbus asked some area market managers about their efforts to adapt and their plans moving forward.
Worthington Farmers Market: Home again
The Worthington market has returned to the downtown streets after a year away.
Christine Hawks, manager of the Worthington Farmers Market since April 2019, has a degree in hospitality management from Washington State University, a background in digital marketing and varied business development and management experience.
But what job prepares you for a global pandemic?
When non-essential businesses closed in March 2020, “There were empty grocery shelves,” she said. “But we had eggs. The pandemic changed the way people looked at farmers markets. We weren’t just a social event, but an essential service.”
Because few Ohio farmers markets are open in the winter as Worthington is, they became a pioneer in safely connecting producers and customers under pandemic guidelines. Hawks conferred with the market’s parent organization, the Old Worthington Partnership, as well as the City of Worthington and the Columbus Board of Public Health. To their combined credit, the winter market closed for only one Saturday.
The next Saturday, backed by legions of volunteers, the operation transformed into a drive-through, contactless outdoor market, complete with clever signage, at Worthington Community Center, where customers picked up purchases they had ordered online.
“I was amazed at how many people came out in March to help,” Hawks said. “Board members and community members—entire families, many of my colleagues” stood cheerfully outside in the coldest weather on market days, directing traffic and assisting vendors.
As a member of a national farmers market managers group, she also was “grateful and thankful to have resources on the West Coast,” where markets felt the effects of the pandemic first and developed signage and social media graphics that Worthington used for its “reset.”
Each Saturday an ever-growing caravan of cars crawled through the parking lot to pick up their prepaid purchases. It was a spectacular recovery, but far from ideal. After all, farmers markets are built on the friendly contact between producer and customer that people were now being advised to avoid.
“Some producers didn’t have the resources for websites,” Hawks said. “Most had never sold online before. And we couldn’t take SNAP or EBT [food assistance]. That was a huge concern.”
When the community center announced a construction project, Hawks and her allies began searching for a summer market venue.
Parking lots are not the most picturesque venues, but with people working at home, there were lots of empty ones. The Worthington market found two, spending the first weeks of summer at Paradigm Properties on West Wilson Bridge Road, and the rest of the season at Worthington Industries, “a fantastic host and location.”
Again people could stroll around, buy on impulse, pay with cash or EBT cards. Masked customers waited in line to enter the market, but the long lines moved quickly.
In October, the winter market went back indoors at Worthington Square, with vendors still distanced due to COVID restrictions. Three merchants opted to brave the cold of the parking lot all winter, which did not seem to blunt the loyalty of their customers.
Using data from last summer’s headcounts, Hawks and her cohorts determined that the summer 2021 market could return to downtown Worthington, to the delight of vendors, customers and merchants.
Today the market sprawls from the village greens on the north to just south of the Worthington Post Office. For now, social distancing and masking continue.
Although Hawks herself doubtless deserves much of the applause for the market’s successful transformation, she is quick to share the credit.
“Volunteers are truly the base of this farmers market, and they’ve been on the front lines to pitch in wherever needed,” she said. “The community came to the rescue and we’re still here and thriving.”
—Nancy McKibben
Clintonville Farmers Market: A fresh start
The Clintonville market chose to stay at the Ohio History Center for another summer.
When the coronavirus emerged last spring, organizers of the much-loved Clintonville Farmers Market were forced to choose between keeping the market in Clintonville and having a market at all.
Since 2003 the market had operated along North High Street at Dunedin Road, a convenient walk for most Clintonville regulars. The site was too small, however, to allow for adequate social distancing. This prompted organizers to move last spring to the parking lot of the Ohio History Connection, 800 E. 17th Street.
“It was definitely a test, that’s for sure,” said Executive Director Michelle White.
Officials had some concerns about what it would mean to move a popular neighborhood market out of its neighborhood, but they quickly discovered the new site came with some advantages. It had plenty of parking and is just a short, seven-minute drive from Clintonville so many regular customers made the trip. And many new customers joined them.
“I feel like we’ve served a much bigger population,” White said. “We’ve had customers coming from Westerville and Dublin and Groveport. There are some good things!”
Market officials were happy with how the season had gone at the new site as fall arrived. Case counts were surging and the pandemic situation still seemed uncertain when they had to sign contracts and formalize plans for this season’s market, so Clintonville officials committed to stay another year at the Ohio History Connection lot.
“We’re back and we’re happy to be here,” White said. The market is open from 9am to noon each Saturday through Nov. 20.
While it will be another season away from their home neighborhood, White said market vendors and customers both have taken to some of the changes prompted by the pandemic. Allowing customers to order ahead and then pick up their goods via drive-through proved so popular that Clintonville Farmers Market will use it again this year.
Customers who order online can be sure the produce or other goods they want will be available without having to race to the market first thing in the morning. Producers appreciate that online pre-orders help them better plan for what to bring to the market. At the end of last year’s season, a survey of customers showed 80% wanted the market to keep the e-commerce option.
Organizers hope to return to the original Clintonville location in 2022, but are eager to make the most of the temporary site for one more season. Even as the pandemic is less of a threat this year, White said customers are happy to have space to spread out and shop outdoors.
The market has 60 vendors to start the season, including a new guacamole vendor from Findlay, new fruit farmers, new bakers and several new urban farmers from Columbus.
While the season started with live music for opening day, White says market officials are still considering whether music should be a weekly feature. Organizers want to focus on the essential mission of the market, which is continuing to provide fresh, local food to the community.
“We want to focus on what it is that we do, which is connect people to local food,” White said.
Next season White hopes the market can return to its original home in Clintonville, complete with the live music and neighborhood vibe that many loved.
“I hope next year for our 20th season we will be back in our old spot with a blowout,” White said.
—Wynne Everett
Granville Farmers Market: Focus on variety
Raccoon Valley Park is home to the Granville Market this season.
Artisan cheese from Fredericktown, sugar-sweet carrots from Alexandria. Cinnamon-creamed honey competes for your attention with mushrooms and cucamelons. Where else can one find goat-milk soaps next to gooseberries but at a summer farmers market?
Since 1993, farmers and eager customers have flocked on Saturday mornings to the Granville Farmers Market, which runs this year from May 1 through Oct. 30 at Raccoon Valley Park on River Road. Granville boasts one of the bigger markets in the state, as well as one of the oldest. The more than 50 vendors include local farmers, bakers and specialty producers, who shun large volume in favor of high-quality, often organic goods.
There is also a Tuesday market beginning June 8, which runs through September 28 in the parking lot of Ross’ Granville Market on South Main Street.
Market Master Steve Matheny, executive director of the Granville Chamber of Commerce, has a soft spot for the market. “We are a growers market,” he said, “meaning that the vendors grow the produce themselves. Nothing is bought from somewhere else and resold.
“We have some unique vendors, such as our apiarist [beekeeper]. We very much emphasize variety.”
Bryn Bird, whose family farm has been a part of the market almost since the beginning, said, “We have high-quality products, but we’re not at all pretentious. That ensures the local makers do well. It’s not as competitive; it’s more of a community. Not all markets share that philosophy.”
Like everybody else, the market had to invent a different routine in 2020. Pre-COVID, it was held on a closed-off street downtown. It moved first to the high school parking lot, then to Raccoon. There simply wasn’t enough space to have it in the village center with social distancing in place.
Designated an essential business, farmers markets carried on and vendors discovered that buyers still came out. Bird said, “It was weird not to see kids at the market, and not being able to hand out samples was the biggest obstacle for me.” But sales were good.
Bird continued, “I was the biggest stick-in-the-mud last year about it not being by the Methodist church downtown. But we weren’t breaking a forever tradition by moving to Raccoon. Parking was no longer an issue, and the vendors had extra feet to spread out.”
Some of the vendors had their best sales year ever, according to Matheny. “I do think that customers were down in 2020, but those who did come bought more purposely. They weren’t there to socialize,” he said.
The pandemic also had the unforeseen effect of making the vendors offer their wares online so that customers could pre-order goods. The long line to buy fresh sweet corn, for example, was no longer an issue, because the purchasing was done on the Web.
The usual cautions are in place once more in 2021 (masks, no samples, etc.), but the market offers a cornucopia of goods during these trying times. Bird said, “Even in a pandemic, we had a spectacular year, and we remember the lessons. Keep coming out, and buy local.”
—Scott Gowans
Franklin Park Conservatory: The market returns
The weekly farmers market that ran for years at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens never opened last summer, a victim of the pandemic. In fact, the entire conservatory remained closed to the public for three months.
So it’s a mark of progress that the farmers market is back open this summer, with 20 vendors set up each Wednesday in the parking lot, along with a food truck each week and live music on some dates.
“It’s so important to the conservatory to be a part of the community,” said Market Manager Michele Bailey. “Local food access is part of that.”
She also is coordinator of the conservatory’s Teen Corps, a youth internship program focused on urban farming. Participants learn to grow vegetables and then sell them at the farmers market.
“We like having the farmers market because it helps connect us to the community around us in so many ways,” she said.
The conservatory market started up June 2 and will run from 3:30 to 6:30pm each Wednesday through Sept. 1. As with other area markets, visitors are asked to wear masks and will find wide aisles with vendors spread out.
“It’s always fun to meet the farmers who grew the squash that you’re putting on your dinner table,” Bailey said. “And part of the pleasure is knowing that you helped that farmer put food on their table because you purchased something from them.”
—Gary Kiefer
- Edible Columbus has compiled a full list of area farmers markets. Follow the Find a Farmers Market link.
