"To market to market...."
On June 17th,
my family and I went to check at the Farmer’s Market in Crazy Woman Square in
downtown Buffalo, Wyoming. Their market
is every Wednesday from about mid-June to early September. The hours are from 5-7pm. They do have a website: http://bdafarmersmarket.com/friends-sponsors/ and I did try getting in contact with someone
so I could have some of my questions answered, but still have not heard back…
So as far as
who is “in charge,” I really don’t know, as I wasn’t able to find that
out. Some of their funding partners
include the City of Buffalo and Johnson County.
Some of their sponsors include a local newspaper and a radio
station. Of course, the vendors are
required to pay a fee for their space at the market, but I was not able to find
out what other written or unwritten rules apply.
This was my
first time to this farmer’s market, and the little square had 17 booths. This is much smaller than a previous farmer’s
market I had been to, but this is also a small town of less than 5,000
people. Most of the booths related to
farms in some way, although there were a few that did not directly have to do
with farming, such as jewelry and art.
About five
of the booths were plant related, with some selling things like lettuce,
radishes, and herbs. Three of the booths
that I saw were animal related. Two sold
goat milk, with one also selling goat milk cheese, and another sold eggs. As I
mentioned above, there were several booths that sold things not farm related at
all including the art, jewelry, and Scouting booth.
Some of the
names of the booths were Golden Rule Produce, one advertising Amish baked
goods, and Lower Piney Heirloom Vegetable Gardens. Some of the booths did not have a big banner
or sign advertising. I did not see any
brochures at any of the booths, and was not offered any. I saw a booth with samples of granola, one
with small samples of soap, which my children quickly grabbed and was offered a
sample of body butter at a different booth.
Except for
the lady that asked me if I wanted to try some body butter, I didn’t have
anyone else verbally ask me to try anything or get me interested in their
goods. There was a musical act that
would pitch certain booths in between his numbers.
Most of the
people at the booths were either the farmer or maker of the goods, or a family
member. Most of the people at the booths
were middle-aged adults, although some of the booths had younger family members
working as well.
The
demographic of those in attendance was quite diverse from what I saw. Some elderly couples, younger couples, and
families with children. I didn’t see too
much geared specifically towards young children, except for the booth that was
making and selling cotton candy. It
definitely got my kids attention!
I’m sure
there are some friendships and acquaintances between vendors and attendees, but
I did not observe any in particular. As
I mentioned at the beginning of the post, this farmer’s market is held in small
grassy square in their downtown. There
was a man singing mostly country songs, but announced he was taking requests
and would try to honor them.
I enjoyed my
trip to this farmer’s market. It was interesting
to try to check out the goods at the booths after being in this class. I probably would have been able to talk to
more of the vendors, but my children had other plans!
 |
| The jams looked really yummy! |
 |
| Fresh milk and eggs |
 |
| The Cotton Candy Guy |
 |
| Goat milk and goat cheese |
 |
| Local produce |
 |
| Produce and cookies |
 |
| The stage where a man was performing some country tunes |
 |
| Cool mural on the wall bordering the farmer's market |
No comments:
Post a Comment