Next time you swing past your favourite farmers' market, have a guess at how long it's been around. If you figure 10 or even 15 years, you're probably guessing low- way low.
In this province, farmers' markets are anything but recent. Whereas other provinces are "going local" in food purchases, Saskatchewan got up and went back in the 1970s. With some financial prompting from the provincial government, farmers' market co-ops appeared all over. As many as 65 were already humming in 1979. That's when the Saskatchewan Farmers' Market Co-operative was formed to help them co-ordinate, share information, and keep on the right side of Saskatchewan Health.
Most of those markets are still active today, all part of the over $3 billion business which farmers' markets represent across Canada.
Like Battlefords and District Farmers' Market Co-op for instance. It received its 25-year Certificate of Cooperative Achievement back in 2004! Its vendors sell "a little bit of everything." There's soap and sewing, bread and buns, meat, dairy and coffee beans. All manner of garden produce. Everything homemade or home grown.
Summer is the busy time, with two markets weekly, in two different locations, one north of the river, one south. But there are sales to be made in winter too, when the vendors set up their tables inside the Co-op Marketplace.
Does the fact that Walmart is adding a grocery store to its complex create a stir? No more than Frazer's No Frills Supermarket does - which is to say, none at all. The discount grocery stores just don't appeal to the same type of buyer.
You see, people come to the Battlefords and District Farmers' Market because they value local and they value fresh. They want to be sure that the carrots or heads of lettuce were picked and washed yesterday or maybe the day before. Another thing they shop there for is the pleasure and security of knowing the producer. They want to "put a face behind what they put in their face."
They also come looking for artistic talent. In addition to fun marketplaces, farmers' market co-ops foster new talent. You become "part of a talented pool of individuals whose hard work, creativity and drive know no bounds!" says photographer and vendor Rosanna Parry.
Onto this riot of creativity and friendship the SFMC imposes only the lightest touch of order, primarily for the sake of customer safety and the greater good: enabling more residents of Saskatchewan to be able to buy healthy, locally-produced goods.
The member co-ops pay the SFMC an annual membership fee. Their vendors pay the SFMC an annual levy, which enables them to sell their wares at any member co-op. The levies go to pay for advertising, in print and online. They also cover the market's group insurance.
Crucial to that insurance is an accurate listing of every vendor and his or her contact information. That's the job of the member co-ops. It's also up to them to make sure that their vendors complete and submit weekly and monthly sales reports.
This may sound like bean-counter's dream, but don't be fooled. These elementary statistics - how much was sold of each type of good - are invaluable. Pack all those numbers together, like the annual volume of local vegetable sales, or province-wide sales of home baking, and you have a case. For the government, you have a case for the impact of these markets on the economy. For the member co-ops and their vendors, you have a moving picture of what is selling, where's it's selling, and if those sales are following a pattern.
SFMC is also the champion of farmers' markets in their dealings with the government and other large institutions. It searches out grants. It helps members understand the constant swirl of regulation, especially in terms of health safety. It helps them make their voices heard when regulations, like supplier certification, impede the efforts of small producers to sell excess produce to grocery chains.
Currently, more than 20 of the province's farmers' markets are SFMC members. Does that include your farmers' market of choice? Maybe it should!
