Farmer Thoughts: Our Farmers Market Super Power

Contributed by Farmer Becca, Bottomland Farm —

I’m one of those people who would be perfectly at peace spending weeks at a time not leaving the farm. As a matter of fact, there are weeks (especially during the winter) when I do exactly that and don’t even notice. If I have good work to do, my farm dog by my side, and a handful of my favorite people stopping by every once in a while, I’m content. During the spring transition, though, I start to get the itch to leave, explore, and reconnect with society a little bit more.

Yesterday’s rainy weather gave me the perfect excuse to blow off a little bit of farm work and head into town to the Ithaca Farmers Market to say hi to people I haven’t seen in six months or more. It turned into a great morning, and when I left the market, my arms were full of groceries and my smile was wide from catching up with friends. Even though I usually stick close to home, reconnecting with a few friends every once in a while leaves me with the “warm and fuzzies.” People are herd animals, after all.

Each and every kind of animal we have on the farm thrives in a group and struggles independently. Our adult pigs live in groups called sounders and piglets in droves, our goats live in a herd, and our chickens and ducks in flocks. Even our farm cats, who usually spend their days hunting alone, come together at night into a group called a clowder, grooming and cuddling with each other. I think people are sometimes more like farm cats than we care to admit: working independently but really thriving in groups (which by the way, are called communities).

Years ago, when I first started working at farmers markets, the thing about them that truly fascinated me was the community that they created. These markets were made up of farmers, artisans, and chefs who were unusually passionate and incredibly stubborn. These were people who worked for themselves (and sometimes because they couldn’t work for anyone else).

These people had, more often than not, taken complicated and impressive paths that had led them to become small business owners and passionate supporters of local economies. Several of the vendors I’ve worked with were immigrants who had traveled to the U.S. and started their own businesses; a few farmers were veterans who were looking for hard, meaningful work and a way to impart positive change on the world; some folks had lived in communes, and others had come from big cities; some were fifth-generation farmers, and others were lawyers who had turned to farming to keep themselves busy in their retirement. Regardless of their backgrounds, everyone was part of this strange market community that came together to pull off an incredible event each and every week.

And through these farmers’ market communities, I found my people. These are people who are willing to work together, to give all that they can to help each other, and that help make a long, hot summer week of farm work a little better. After the market, when we barter with our friends, Farmer Bill and I always joke that our superpower is turning eggs into bread, coffee, cider, and veggies; but really our superpower lies in the market community and the amazing people that surround us.

(Bottomland Farm, located in Berkshire, N.Y., can be contacted via email at farmer@bottomlandfarm.com.)