Last weekend I visited the Ferguson Farmers’ Market for the first time. I’d been hearing about it for years: live music, local farms, EarthDance, farm tours and great prices. All true. It got me thinking about what it is about neighborhood farmers’ markets— and we have many of them—that keeps people coming back week after week? Sure, part of the attraction is the fresher foods—who wouldn’t prefer a peach grown across the river in Calhoun County to one trucked in from, say, Georgia? Or cheese produced at Baetje Farms a couple of hours from here?
But this kind of shopping is about much more than filling the pantry. It’s about the satisfaction of obtaining something as basic as your family’s nourishment directly from the source. And it’s about community. I frequent several of the markets—Schlafly, Kirkwood, U. City, Tower Grove—and they all have something in common: an aura of joy. The folks selling, and those buying, always look so happy. Of course, that could have something to do with the live music (Ferguson) or the free yoga classes (Tower Grove) or the peach and pumpkin festivals (Kirkwood), but I think it’s more than that. Spending a couple of hours every weekend talking to farmers, beekeepers, cheesemakers and jam makers connects us to the natural world. And in our hectic daily lives, who wouldn’t want to feel a little closer to Mother Nature?