Farmer's Market Fraud

As I was perusing the stands in Evanston this Wednesday, I couldn't help but notice that among the strawberries and root vegetables in one stand were grape and Roma tomatoes. One poke convinced me that these guys had been lifted from the 10cent sale at Jewel and haven't seen dirt for quite some time, despite their rustic container. Last year, I found it odd that many of the apples and cucumbers appeared to be waxed. I'd noticed this as a trend at other farmer's markets - so I made a comment about how early these tomatoes appeared to be to another vendor who had only seasonal produce. He gave me a knowing smile, and said - "they're hard, eh?" (Not to dissuade anyone from the little Wednesday market which I really enjoy - there is only one questionable vendor out of several, and they do appear to have some actual farm-grown produce along with the obvious impostors.)

Now, it was bad enough when midsummer seasonal tomatoes in chain grocery stores disappeared sometime in the 80s. Worse that even the little Mom-and-pop produce stores stopped carrying them - but farmer's markets? Shouldn't there be some oversight to prevent them from buying wholesale and marking stuff up?

MHays,

In the early 1990's as volunteer payback for learning canning skills from University of Illinois Extension. I was camped at the Ravinia Farmer's Market every other week for a couple of months answering food preservation questions.

There was one vendor who 'farmed' their produce from Water Street wholesale market. These were peak ripe fruit and vegetables on the edge of going downhill. Good value as long as you are prepared to cook and eat them quickly. Early morning business was ok for everybody, though as the morning progressed less and less people went to Water Street farmer. Unlike the other vendors who picked their produce the night before and chilled it, the Water Street farmer's produce was visibly wilting by noon.

In that era, the person responsible for the market had a contractual relationship with this vendor. There were no plans to renew it for the following year.

I have visited a number of truck farms in my area. While most of the items they grow themselves. There are occasions where vegetables too early for our climate came from downstate. I wouldn't be surprised if some came from wholesalers to round off their offerings, which is a market driven response. Most of the truck farms I visit are not really in operation until mid to late July, then they are open daily until Halloween.

Regards,

There is at least one vendor at Evanston market who sells hydroponic tomatoes that he grows. He doesn't advertise it, but will admit readily when asked.

There were some exceedingly round, exceedingly perfect tomatoes at Green City this week from one or two vendors that I assumed (because I believe GCM is pretty rigorous about this) had to be hydroponics that they grew. Have to say, I was much more interested in the strawberries, cherries, raspberries, and such-- as well as a Bleeding Heart strawberry tart that was mighty fine.

leek wrote:There is at least one vendor at Evanston market who sells hydroponic tomatoes that he grows. He doesn't advertise it, but will admit readily when asked.

MikeG wrote:There were some exceedingly round, exceedingly perfect tomatoes at Green City this week from one or two vendors that I assumed (because I believe GCM is pretty rigorous about this) had to be hydroponics that they grew.

Was either of those sold by a guy named McWethy out of Michigan? I'm not a fan of hydroponics in general, but I hear McWethy's are good.

I don't know, it wasn't what I was shopping for so I just saw them in passing.

I actually wouldn't mind hydroponics - after all, I don't expect there to be tomatoes this early, and would assume they'd either traveled, or there was some situation like that - caveat emptor, right? However, hydroponic tomatoes are usually of better quality (they have some give and smell like tomatoes) than these, which were clearly waxed, hard, and smelled like nothing at all - indistinguishable, in my view, from supermarket romas. I suppose I wouldn't have minded, except they were about twice the price of the supermarket or more.

This market is new (Ridgeville); I know the people in the park district who set it up, and they had interviewed all the vendors carefully for this very reason - but unless you bring the entire plant and have people pick it off the branches themselves, how can you police that? I saw that there was a scandal in England a while back on this very issue, but at least they have a certification system there.

Green City has a few stands that sell greenhouse tomatoes. They are they are grown in soil, just an enviroment that gets hotter due to a plastic cover.

It's a real shame that a farmers market has to resort to fake stuff (if that's the case). There may not be corn and peppers on hand now, but there is so much: sugar snaps, shelling peas, kohlrabi, green onions, turnips, radishes. I mean asparagus is about over.

If a place advertises itself as a "farmers' market", the place should be filled with farmers selling their locally grown fruits and vegetables.

if it is NOT advertised as a "farmers' market". then I think that selling produce from the local distributors is fair game. And I do NOT think that is such a bad thing. Cleveland's West Side Market is stocked with produce vendors that buy their product from the local wholesalers. The quality is variable. Some guys sell top of the line stuff that exceeds the quality of the Tops (Ahold) and the Giant Eagle Supermarkets. Others sell "surplus" produce which has a limited shelf life. I generally bought the latter as the taste of ripe fruit is generally very good (understanding tahat I had to use it quickly). Generally, I processed that fruit and vegetables over the weekend and used it by Wednesday.

My concern with the "farmers markets" that you see in some of the suburbs is that while locally grown, so much of the product is garbage - overripe, insect ridden, etc. and of course, higher prices. And why don'tI believe that a woman with a $100 nail job selling the produce is NOT the one growing it. I am not paying $3.95/lb for tomatoes that are overripe or that look like garbage, even if they are "heirloom". (At home, my father and MIL both frow 10-15 different varieties of tomatoes on their farms.

Out here, you do better stopping at SOME of the roadside markets than the Saturday "town square" events.