Farmers' Market Season Comes to a Cold Close

Darkness blankets 5th Street and Broadway Avenue in downtown St. Paul at 5:00 AM on Saturday, but the farmers’ market already bustles with the sounds of drivers carefully backing their delivery vans into tight spaces.  Subdued voices sound down the empty aisles as farmers and vendors set-up their stalls in preparation for the eager folks who will be ready to buy melons, peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce when the market opens at 6:00. For the vendors the actions have become routine, but to any onlooker it appears as if a quiet machine made of people, produce, and delivery vans has come to St. Paul. It’s a strange scene:  men, women, and children from cities and small towns throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin come to the same place in the early hours of the now crisp fall mornings, and vendors in winter hats unload the watermelons and spicy peppers of summer—but a rhythm connects the people here.

Farmers’ markets dot the Minnesota landscape.  Consumers who wish to buy local produce or find specific ingredients can make a quick trip to buy the melons, sweet and spicy peppers, vegetables, lettuce and chickens found at one of the many markets throughout the state.

But life is much different for the farmers who work there. Myce Yang works on her in-laws’ farm in Forest Lake, MN.  They sell chicken herbs and other produce in early summer and live chickens in mid summer to late fall at the Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul. During the months when her family harvests tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables, Yang brings them to the market seven days a week, meaning that she and her family harvest produce and herbs, tend those crops, and load and unload them every day.  “It’s a lot of work,” says Yang, “You do it on your own time and everything, but it’s a lot of work.”

Although her family has always farmed, they only recently began depending on it as a source of income.  “My husband got laid off so we tried it [selling at the farmers’ market] for the first year, and it seemed ok.” And it appears that the Yangs’ hard work has paid off: last year they were able to bring chickens to the market until late November, but they will probably run out of stock sooner this year.

Tou Vang looks forward to the end of market season.  He makes the nearly hour-long drive from Farmington, MN to sell vegetables from his family’s farm at the St. Paul Farmers’ Market every Saturday and Sunday. The markets operate year-round, but farmers, of course, can only sell their produce during a growing season that is quickly coming to an end.  Vang will continue to sell in October, “if the weather’s good,” he says, “[but] as soon as the frost hits we’re pretty much done.”

And after that? “Something you might call a nice long vacation,” says Vang, but adds that he, “might also find a part-time job here and there – just a few extra bucks.”

The fickle nature of customers at the market makes the future uncertain for many vendors.  Dean Schwake, the owner of a bison ranch in Nerstrand, MN says that while his stand has had some record sales this year, “Some people say they’re doing worse than last year.”

Perhaps one of the most important factors for the decline in sales is due to the rampant construction in downtown St. Paul, which makes driving to the market and finding a parking spot difficult and confusing (although there is free parking near the downtown market).  Schwake notes that this year, “There are fewer people because of parking [issues].”

However, even with fewer people in attendance perusing the aisles, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market often fills to capacity.  Attendees politely jostle one another on their way down rows that regularly come to a complete stop.

And as Saturday morning disappears, the surreal pre-dawn events fade into vague memory.  Vendors re-load their vans with unsold goods and make the long trek home where more work awaits—after all, they have to be ready for tomorrow’s market.

The Hmongtown Marketplace is located at 650 Rice Street (on the corner of Como Avenue and Rice Street) in St. Paul and operates 7 days a week from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. For more information, you can visit its website at www.hmongtownmarketplace.com.  The Downtown St. Paul Farmers’ Market is located at 290 E 5th Street in St. Paul and operates on Saturdays from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM and Sundays from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM (hours will change after November 20. You can find more information at www.stpaulfarmersmarket.com.

By Teresa Townsend