Carmel Farmers Market Announces Vendors, Starts Next Week

I agree, don't forget to mention the Carmel Farmers Market in the Barnyard!

As a person provding technical assistance to small beginning farmers in terms of regulation compliance and direct marketing, I appreciate that another venue is available for them to access and sell their produce. For farmers, there can never be enough farmers markets, especially since there are long waiting lists to get into the already established markets. If we expect the number of farmers to continue growing to meet the needs of an ever growing population, we will need to find additional market outlets for them.

That being said, as a Carmel resident that regularly works M-F 9-5 and not in Carmel, I would REALLY appreciate a farmers market in Carmel that is not open during normal working hours. It might have been more effective to have this new market with hours, say 3-7pm, on Thursdays. It would have alleviated tension with the established Carmel Farmers Market at the Barnyard Tuesday mornings and would provide another sector of Carmel residents the possiblity to support local farmers.

Food for thought!

The seasonal Carmel Farmers Market, open every Tuesday from 9 am - 1 pm at the Barnyard Shopping Village, is celebrating its tenth (yes, that's correct — TENTH) anniversary this year. The two articles I've read in this publication touting the "new" Carmel Farmers Market have not mentioned this well-established farmers market, although it's obvious that the author(s) have visited the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets website to research the hours and locations of its other markets and are well aware of its existence.

Additionally, there are two more farmers markets in close proximity run by the same organization: Monterey Farmers Market at MPC on Fridays, 10 am - 2 pm, and the Del Monte Farmers Market at the Del Monte Shopping Center on Sundays, 8 am - 12 pm. In fact, there are 13 farmers markets currently running in the Monterey County almost every day of the week.

So, am I to understand that the Carmel city leaders don't recognize that there already IS a Carmel Farmers Market in existence, along with 13 other markets? And Jerry Lami (apparently known for starting up farmers markets in elite "wealthy Cali communities") was hired because he would understand the high-brow aesthetics of the Carmel community, namely that Carmelites preferred to avoid mingling with "the working schmuck nine-to-fivers" and to have to have their "own" farmers market? That visit to the Marina farmers market must have been a real hair raiser! Hmmm. And considering that downtown Carmel is already a congested mess with difficult parking at best, this hardly bodes well for attracting shoppers, as many of the downtown businesses tried to convey to the planners. Despite this reality to anyone familiar with Carmel, the comment by the new market manager, Jan Taylor is almost absurd: “I'm more worried about walking space for everybody," she says, "so they don't bump into each other.” Right. Obviously, she hasn't visited Carmel very often.

Let's get real here — how many Carmel residents want to spend 25 minutes searching for a parking place in downtown Carmel, doing their grocery shopping in a crowded market, and then hauling the groceries back to their car? And, let's not forget those big, nasty farm trucks — will they have to be moved (out of sight, for certain!) to make more room for Carmel shoppers to park regardless of the extra work, inconvenience, time, and probable expense it will cause the farmer to offload and find a spot to park?

Did anybody bother to do a demographics or marketing study? How many Carmelites prepare meals for themselves at home? I'd be wiling to bet that most probably eat out and would prefer a quick run into Whole Foods than to be jostled around in a crowded street marketplace.

So, why ANOTHER farmers market? Carmelites are too inconvenienced to shop at the farmers market at MPC on Friday mornings or visit Carmel Farmers Market at The Barnyard on Tuesdays? There's the Tuesday market, as well as the Pacific Grove market, too. These markets offer lots of free parking with easy access. There's certainly not any lack of access to healthy, organic produce with many established markets, well-managed markets all around.

A farmers market is not a glamorous event. It's a place to buy local produce grown by hard working, small family farmers who have very unglamorous jobs. They get dirty, they work seven days a week growing and producing food. Then, they harvest the food, pack it up in their trucks, and transport it to a farmers market to sell. A farmers market may be a four hour event for customers, but it's an ALL DAY commitment for the farmers considering the travel time, loading and off loading, more travel time and finally unloading at the end of the day. They depend on "real world" experienced market managers to create successful markets. Farmers markets are an integral part of their livelihood. If a market manager can't deliver the customer foot traffic, it's a waste of time for the farmers. In the end, it's the farmer who suffers the financial hardship when the start-up, "me-too!" market follies fail.

I love farmers markets and truly respect and appreciate the collective efforts by farmers to provide our communities with wholesome, healthy produce. Like other "working schmuck nine-to-fivers" I have to make the time and effort to support the markets and farmers. To create a farmers market merely for the convenience of a few downtown Carmel residents or using a farmers market as a quaint street fair attraction is not only off-putting, it's repugnant.

Mark, I enjoy your food column. Don't forget to mention the Carmel Farmers Market at the Barnyard every Tuesday from 9am to 1pm. They've been there for over 10 years and have a great following, or is the Barnyard not considered a part of Carmel? It's the same people who do the MPC, Friday Certified Farmers Market. Good luck to them, if it fails, farmers are the ones that get hurt.