Celebrating National Farmers Market Week

Today is a special day to support local farmers, ranchers, and vendors who make up the farmers markets across America. We owe every meal to those willing to raise our food.

Farmers Markets began more than 5,000 years ago when farmers lined the banks of the Nile River to sell produce. In America, farmers markets were flourishing by the mid-1700s and continued to grow with the development of this country.

After the mid-1950s, we lost farmer’s markets to new, popular grocery stores. But, by the 1990s, scientists began confirming the association between some diseases and the lack of nutrition in a typical American diet. Doctors began recommending an increase in fresh vegetables to patients. Numerous publications about “real food” appeared, along with movies, and once again, communities began organizing farmers markets.

As a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension horticulturist, I was teaching educators how to implement the Jr. Master Gardener curriculum, published in 1999 by Texas A&M, into schools and build school gardens. I was fortunate to be part of the research team tracking diet improvement among student’s families with school gardens. Several farmers, as well as a local packing house, cooperated with this renewed interest in farming by allowing educators to tour facilities to better understand the work of farming and the high quality of locally produced fruits and vegetables.

Additionally, participating teachers and students joined me for a full day of harvesting for the Food Bank at local farms to stress to students how important it was to be sure everyone had the opportunity to consume fresh vegetables and fruits. (We averaged 14,000 to 15,000 pounds of produce collected at each yearly event and gifted to the Food Bank of the RGV.)

In 2005, Dr. Juan Anciso, the District Extension Vegetable Specialist, and I worked with the City of Harlingen to find farmers who could help establish a farmers’ market in Cameron County. And, in 2007, I began teaching a market gardening program and, together with my students, we opened a farmers’ market in February 2008 in Hidalgo County. This market thrives today, and it has served as a valuable resource for local producers and vendors who strive to provide fresh produce, meats, eggs, and baked goods for their communities.

Join us today at the Farmers Market at Firemen’s Park in McAllen as we celebrate National Farmers Market Week, and National S’mores Day. We will have handmade S’mores with homemade marshmallows in a variety of flavors! The market is open from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturdays weekly at McAllen’s Firemen’s Park, 201 N. 1st St., under the large, covered area next to Town Lake, just off of Business 83.

Barbara Storz is a local horticulturist writing about plants that grow well locally. You can find her at the Farmers Market at Firemen’s Park in McAllen every Saturday, year-round.