Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

April showers are bringing more than flowers on Saturday, April 29th. Lawrence Farmers’ Market is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new location at 824 New Hampshire. The move to the new site, located at Pachamama’s parking lot, has been under discussion since the mid 90’s.
Lawrence Farmers Market new logo

Mercedes Taylor-Puckett, Market Coordinator, is excited about the new location despite challenges that come along with the long-awaited move. “We’ve been waiting to move for approximately ten years. The waiting list had grown to four or five years” said Taylor-Puckett.

Why the long wait? Over the past years, the city was unable to grant approval for the Weekday Market to also move to the New Hampshire Street location. Taylor-Puckett said, “We weren’t able to move the weekday market as well, because that area of downtown is heavily used by employees and shoppers. We just couldn’t kick everyone out of the parking lot at three o’clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

The lack of lot space during the week led to the final decision of holding different locations. The new Saturday market will be open from 7 to 11 a.m. at the 800 block of New Hampshire. The original location at 1020 Vermont will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. Both lots will stay open for business until the season winds down on November 11th. map taken from mapquest.com

The new lot is almost doubling the size of the market’s old site, jumping from 65 stalls to 102 at the New Hampshire location. But Lawrence isn’t the only farmer’s market expanding its stalls. Pat Randleas is the Market Coordinator for Wichita’s Old Town Farmers’ Market. According to Randleas, this is Wichita’s first year for the east market. Randleas had problems with city ordinances and the zoning department similar to Lawrence’s Market. The same problems led to the same solution, adding a new location. According to Randleas, the separate location “opens us up to a lot of new customers.”

Neither Randleas nor Taylor-Puckett seem to be too worried about the separate locations. Randleas believes “Lawrence has a lot of good support.” It’s the support of the community that keeps the market going. Ashley Smarker, a market customer says “the new location just means there will be more stalls for me to choose from.”

Jill Elmers is Downtown Lawrence Farmer’s Market treasurer, as well as a vendor. As treasurer, Elmers’ handles the market’s different fees. To be a vendor, a DLFM membership fee of $30.00 is required. In addition to membership, vendors must pay varying stall fees. These stall fees can be bought as a seasonal pass, guaranteeing vendors a stall until November 11th. Vendors can also choose from weekday only passes, Saturday only passes or even pay a daily stall fee.

Because of the long waiting list, many vendors choose the latter option. Taylor-Puckett says the first year of being a vendor is about “letting people see your face.” Beginning vendors are labeled floaters. Floaters usually show up to the market early in hopes of finding an empty stall. According to Elmers, “the bigger vendors buy seasonal passes, but they don’t always show up every week.”

“Most vendors are really good about letting me know if they will be filling their stalls or not” said Taylor-Puckett. It’s the market coordinator’s job then to fill the empty slots with floaters.

Both floaters and seasonal stall holders provide varying produce for Lawrence shoppers. John and Karen Pendleton have their own country market off of Highway 10, but they are also vendors at Lawrence Farmers’ Market. According to Karen Pendleton Lawrence’s farmers market is different than most other Kansas markets. “Lawrence Farmers’ Market is a growers market. Anything you sell (as a vendor) you have to grow yourself or raise on your farm” said Pendleton.

While growing their own produce might seem obvious, most Kansas farmers markets do not require vendors to raise their own produce. Wichita’s farmers market is one of the many that allow reselling. Randleas said that while reselling is allowed, vendors must display a sign to let customers know that the produce is not their own. “We are currently switching over from no management and trying to refine our market to producers only, but we are still in a transition stage” said Randleas.

Lawrence’s farmers market is well past the produce transition stage. Vendors must follow guidelines made by the DLFM. These guidelines include different vending categories such as: Producers, Processors, Value-Added Crafters and Prepared Food Vendors. While there are separate vendor categories, everyone follows the same agricultural admission guidelines. To see a detailed list of what can or cannot be sold, see Admission of Agricultural Products to the Market

After 30 years of service, the market has grown from ideas of locally grown produce to having a Board that helps run the market. Shirley Domer wrote 1979 Farmers Market: Notes and Recipes. In it, Domer expresses her definition of a farmer. “I like to remember words spoken by Daniel Webster in 1840: ‘When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.’ Taking Webster’s point of view, one might say that farmers markets are helping strengthen the foundation of our civilization.”