“ A real and personal connection back to the soil.”
— Tim Hoven
t’s just feels good, you know?” Throwing a grin over his shoulder as he slings a couple of cloth bags bursting with produce into the back seat of his car, that’s what
Calgary’s Brandon Hardy says when I ask him why he just did his shopping at the Calgary Farmers Market.
Then Hardy, the very picture of a young, urbane, man-with-money Calgarian, pauses and says more seriously, “When I shop for groceries at one of the big-box stores, I feel like I’ve wasted an hour of my life. But here, when I leave the market, I actually feel better than when I walked in. I like the authenticity of the whole experience, talking with the farmers, touching the fresh produce — it almost makes me feel like I’ve got real Prairie dirt under my nails, and that’s a good thing.”
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A dozen years ago, you might have expected a conversation like this to be taking place on Saltspring Island, B. C. or in Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, or in one of the handful of other communities around our country that serve as gathering places for slightly alternative lifestylers.
Today, however, the farmers market here feels like part of the city, and so does the fact that Hardy is loading his purchases into one of the many shiny SUVs in the parking lot, not into a VW van, and that his girlfriend — with her sky-high heels, salon-perfect hair, and an armful of truly enviable jewelry — fits right into the urban farmers market shopping crowd.
These days, farmers markets in Calgary are officially mainstream. They’re officially popular across all urban demographics too, including affluent trendsters like Hardy and his girlfriend.
That’s great news for the innovative producers who are generally making some very good money at these markets.
It’s not that farmers markets are a new idea, even out here in the Prairies where many farms are still measured in sections, and where yields are more often than not measured in tonnes, not meals.
In a way, though, the difference isn’t just in the markets. Over 100 farmers markets have dotted Alberta for more than a decade.
The difference is in today’s customers. Farmers markets in Calgary are no longer the lower-key affairs of yesterday — the off-the-back-of-the-truck-style markets that offered just a small variety of products, mostly to canners, back-to-the-earth types, and those in search of a handful of Okanagan fruit.
Tim Hoven was raised on a traditional commodity beef farm. Today, he and his family raise organic beef
exclusively for niche-market sale at the Calgary Farmers Market. “I’ve been direct
marketing at the Calgary Farmers Market since 1997,” Hoven says. “The first year, there were many times that I got laughed at by customers when I said organic and beef in the same sentence. Nowadays, people understand.”
“There’s a big shift in consumers,” Hoven says. “It’s very easy and simplistic to say they are willing to spend more (than they used to). They are, but more than that, they value these things now.”
Statistics back up Hoven’s claim. Today’s shoppers are spending far more money at the market. Between 2004 and 2008, in fact, spending at farmers markets in Alberta jumped 65 per cent to $380 million, an increase of $30 million a year.
“We’re certainly seeing people going to the market more often and spending more dollars,” says Eileen Kotowich, the farmers market specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
“We’re up from about 2,000 farmers actively selling at farmers markets a decade ago to about 3,000 farmers today,” Kotowich adds.
Though it might seem like a proverbial chicken-and-egg question, the increased shopping options have definitely followed the underlying trend of increasing consumer demand rather than the other way around.
Like other Canadians, many Albertans have jumped onto the buy-local bandwagon. Shoppers perceive that produce at farmers markets is fresher, better quality and healthier. And, because it’s locally grown, shoppers believe it is more environmentally friendly, both because they believe production might be more natural in Canada than in other countries, and because the products haven’t been trucked halfway across the world.
Plus, an increasing number of city-dwellers — many of whom live fully urbanized and increasingly insular lives — are looking for what our friend Hardy described as his “authentic experience.”
“There’s something really important about interaction between farmer and consumer,” Hoven says. “I’m making my farm a viable financial operation, but just as importantly, I’m also giving people a real and personal connection back to the soil.”
Matthew McDonald speaks from long-term experience when he says shopping at farmers markets in Calgary “is
not a fad.” Just 13 years old when he started as a ticket-seller at Crossroads Market (Calgary’s second longest-running farmers market) McDonald has spent nearly 20 years working his way through every job title in the place.
Today, McDonald is manager and part-owner of Crossroads, but he still has some of his 13-year-old’s boyish enthusiasm when he talks about his market. “Every year, customer demand is getting stronger and stronger,” McDonald says. “There’s more and more awareness and emphasis on health and the environment, and it is starting to really sink in with consumers. We’re happy to see it.”
Commodity farms too
The demand isn’t only on the customer side of the counter. “There are always people approaching us for space. We only have so much land so we can only accommodate so many vendors, unfortunately,” McDonald says. “There is demand and then there is parking. Our market takes up an acre and a half. Our parking lot fills up at 9 am and stays full all day. The traffic would be able to support a lot more vendors — we could probably take up another acre — but we just don’t have the space.”
Two more big markets are slated to open this summer in Calgary, one in the parking lot of Calgary’s new First Nations casino, and the other in one of Calgary’s fairly affluent southwest neighbourhoods. That brings the total to an even dozen for Calgary.
Each of Calgary’s markets offers a slightly different experience geared to neighbourhood demographics. The Calgary Farmers Market draws a slightly more affluent crowd, like Hardy and his girlfriend. Crossroads Market feels like a cultural melting pot, due in large part to its location and reliably low prices. Other markets, such as Northland Market and the Sunnyside-Hillhurst Market are seasonal outdoor markets with a strong community feel.
If you’ve got some acres and you’re keen on a value add, should you get in on selling at a farmers market? Being a farmers market vendor “is not for everyone,” Kotowich warns. “The work that has to be done selling at a farmers market is not easy. Not everyone wants to spend three days a week building relationships with individual customers.”
Doing buisiness at farmers markets, Kotowich adds, “is very much more market focused and focused on what consumers want, which is a very different mindset than growing and selling to traditional commodity markets.”
Less than half of farmers market vendors sell exclusively to this niche market. “This is just one avenue for a lot of producers,” says Kotowich. The majority of vendors are still split between selling to commodity markets and selling to farmers markets. A few who have a weekday “regular” job and then sell at a farmers market on the weekend.
“I don’t know that anyone who shops at a farmers market says ‘oh my gosh, you’re not a real farmer’ to the vendors,” says Kotowich.
“Certainly, we’ve heard the comments from some of the more traditional farmers,” Kotowich admits. “There are always going to be people who are negative on going outside the norm, but we hope we can get over that stereotype.”
McDonald agrees. “On an average weekend, we go through 10 to 12 semi trucks full of produce. We’ve got about 40 vendors overall, and everyone pretty well sells out after every weekend. They bring their choice product to our market — it’s a way of value adding.”
“They are all doing extremely well,” McDonald adds. “No one ever gives up their booth here.” CG
not a fad.” Just 13 years old when he started as a ticket-seller at Crossroads Market (Calgary’s second longest-running farmers market) McDonald has spent nearly 20 years working his way through every job title in the place.
Today, McDonald is manager and part-owner of Crossroads, but he still has some of his 13-year-old’s boyish enthusiasm when he talks about his market. “Every year, customer demand is getting stronger and stronger,” McDonald says. “There’s more and more awareness and emphasis on health and the environment, and it is starting to really sink in with consumers. We’re happy to see it.”
Commodity farms too
The demand isn’t only on the customer side of the counter. “There are always people approaching us for space. We only have so much land so we can only accommodate so many vendors, unfortunately,” McDonald says. “There is demand and then there is parking. Our market takes up an acre and a half. Our parking lot fills up at 9 am and stays full all day. The traffic would be able to support a lot more vendors — we could probably take up another acre — but we just don’t have the space.”
Two more big markets are slated to open this summer in Calgary, one in the parking lot of Calgary’s new First Nations casino, and the other in one of Calgary’s fairly affluent southwest neighbourhoods. That brings the total to an even dozen for Calgary.
Each of Calgary’s markets offers a slightly different experience geared to neighbourhood demographics. The Calgary Farmers Market draws a slightly more affluent crowd, like Hardy and his girlfriend. Crossroads Market feels like a cultural melting pot, due in large part to its location and reliably low prices. Other markets, such as Northland Market and the Sunnyside-Hillhurst Market are seasonal outdoor markets with a strong community feel.
If you’ve got some acres and you’re keen on a value add, should you get in on selling at a farmers market? Being a farmers market vendor “is not for everyone,” Kotowich warns. “The work that has to be done selling at a farmers market is not easy. Not everyone wants to spend three days a week building relationships with individual customers.”
Doing buisiness at farmers markets, Kotowich adds, “is very much more market focused and focused on what consumers want, which is a very different mindset than growing and selling to traditional commodity markets.”
Less than half of farmers market vendors sell exclusively to this niche market. “This is just one avenue for a lot of producers,” says Kotowich. The majority of vendors are still split between selling to commodity markets and selling to farmers markets. A few who have a weekday “regular” job and then sell at a farmers market on the weekend.
“I don’t know that anyone who shops at a farmers market says ‘oh my gosh, you’re not a real farmer’ to the vendors,” says Kotowich.
“Certainly, we’ve heard the comments from some of the more traditional farmers,” Kotowich admits. “There are always going to be people who are negative on going outside the norm, but we hope we can get over that stereotype.”
McDonald agrees. “On an average weekend, we go through 10 to 12 semi trucks full of produce. We’ve got about 40 vendors overall, and everyone pretty well sells out after every weekend. They bring their choice product to our market — it’s a way of value adding.”
“They are all doing extremely well,” McDonald adds. “No one ever gives up their booth here.” CG
