How Farmers Markets are Adapting to the New Coronavirus Reality
Photos by Griffin Andres (@griffinandres)
At 5:45am last Saturday morning, Michael Docter left his farm in Hadley. He drove his truck, full of around 2,500 pounds of carrots, radishes, beets, parsnips and other root vegetables to Somerville. On any other March Saturday, he would sell his Winter Moon Roots produce alongside dozens of other vendors at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market. But this weekend wasn’t any other weekend, and this March hasn’t been any other March.
Because of COVID-19, the market is closed. The doors of Center for Arts at the Armory where it’s normally held are covered in papers detailing where to find vendors. As everyone settles into a new normal of social distancing, limited runs to grocery stores (which probably don’t have those beans or toilet paper you’re looking for) and homebound routines, farmers are adapting, too. Many farmers have set up online ordering options with pick-up or delivery of their goods.
Of the more than 50 vendors who sell at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market, only a handful are still selling in person in some capacity.
And on Saturday morning, only Docter was still selling by the Armory, out of the back of his white truck on Highland Avenue.
At 9:30am, the line to buy roots stretched the entire block, with shoppers distanced in groups of household units. One family of four all stood in line with their bikes, still wearing helmets. Many people shouted hello to Docter across the empty space.
“A lot of people came out,” Docter said. “They were excited to see the food, and we were excited to see them.”
Ben Hoyle and Eytan Levi, neighbors and MIT architecture students working on a joint thesis, were part of the spaced-out line. Levi bought produce from Docter’s truck the week before and convinced Hoyle to come with him the next week by preparing a meal with the fresh produce.
“It’s something to look forward to: new vegetables every Saturday morning,” Levi said.
“In our usual routine, we don’t do things like this,” Hoyle added. “Eytan made soup with beets bought last week. We’re doing more cooking together and for each other.”
Docter ran the roadside root vegetable operation with his two sons, Benny and Jesse, who brought customers giant bags of bright orange carrots and took payments.
By the end of the morning, he was sold out.
The last normal Somerville Winter Farmers Market was on March 7, as news about the coronavirus was beginning to spread. Market organizers made adjustments for safety: They went around to each farm stand with health safety tips to minimize hand-to-hand contact, used gloves and hand sanitizer at the management booth and put up signs reminding customers to practice safe hygiene.
By the next week, Somerville had called off gatherings of more than 50 people. With advice from the city’s Board of Health, the winter market closed.
“It felt very overwhelming,” said Market Manager Jess Bloomer. “There are so many costs and benefits to weigh. It’s a mini example of all the economic-versus-health benefits decisions being made. An economic loss can have health impacts, and a health loss can have economic impacts.”
Immediately after they decided to cancel, Bloomer turned her focus to helping the farmers. Their website now lists how to continue buying from farm and food vendors normally at the market, including two new online farmers market delivery services. The Three River Farmers Alliance, a network of local farmers who cooperatively distribute their food, created Veggie-Go, and mushroom farm Mycoterra is spearheading Mass Food Delivery.
Neither existed before March 14, and both were delivering by the next weekend.
These online delivery options have been popular: Both services are making upward of 450 deliveries this week. Both of their websites initially crashed because of the high demand when they went live.
“This is a scale none of us thought we’d be operating at this quickly,” said Andre Cantelmo, a co-owner of the Alliance and Heron Pond Farm. “But without creating a new marketplace, we would have had a problem.”
Veggie-Go is considering changing their ordering and delivery schedule if demand remains as high as it is.
“People are scared about going to the grocery store now,” Bloomer said. “These are food delivery options where you know the steps the food has taken, how many hands touched the produce. The farmers are committed to a trusting relationship with their customers. They’re taking precautions.”
But as these online options take off, Bloomer and other farmers market managers now face a choice: whether or not to re-open. In Governor Charlie Baker’s emergency order, which shut down non-essential businesses until April 7, farmers markets are included along with grocery stores as an essential business.
Bloomer and the Somerville Winter Farmers Market are part of a broader farmers market conversation across the country asking the same question: close or open?
Is public health benefit greatest if they reopen in an adjusted manner? Or is it best to help farmers build alternative delivery methods?
“In the simplest way, people have to get food somewhere,” Bloomer said, “but as market manager, I feel conflicted about asking vendors as well as our staff and volunteers to come into contact with many customers. Until those are resolved, I feel conflicted about opening a space for people to gather.”
There won’t be a market at the Armory this weekend, but like many other things under coronavirus, Bloomer is taking things day by day and tackling life or death philosophy questions that now accompany any activity outside of peoples’ homes.
“Our farmers are so amazing,” Bloomer said. “They’re making sure our community gets food, and they’re putting themselves at risk when they’re coming in from rural places without exposure into the city to bring us food. But is it morally right for us to ask people to work in a farmers market space?”
UPDATE FROM THE SOMERVILLE FARMERS MARKET
“Tomorrow, Saturday, March 28th, we will be holding a Pre-Order Market from 9am-12pm. You can order from several of our vendors this week, and then pick up your goods on Saturday. This is a great way to support our vendors, especially smaller vendors who do not have the capacity to set up their own delivery systems at this time. Please consider purchasing some of their delicious products. Thanks!”
To preorder, click here>>
This story appeared as an Online Exclusive in late March, 2020.
