To market, to market

Horace Brittain bags up locally grown cukes and peppers. Below, Bob Morrow surveys some greens under the Caloosahatchee Bridge in downtown Fort Myers. OSVALDO PADILLA/ FLORIDA WEEKLY Jeff “Rusty” Troop waves a plastic baggie inches from an inquisitive man’s nose. A burst of clean, pure vanilla wafts head on. Mr. Troop then takes the baggie he just pulled from his breast pocket, holds it in his palm and rubs a weather-beaten thumb across the long brown stalks inside the bag.

“See the oils there, that’s how fresh it is,” he says of the whole vanilla beans.

A few steps away, the sweet scent of vanilla fades as the earthy smell of fistsized beets on their long leafy stalks takes over. A bit farther down the aisle, comforting notes of fresh-baked bread break through.

It’s farmers market season in Southwest Florida, the time when many markets open for their runs until May, and when the year-round ones have more vendors and shoppers alike. Markets continue to sprout and blossom throughout the region. Coconut Point mall in Estero hosts a new market this year, and the North Naples Green Market, run by the same group, has moved to a larger space to accommodate more produce, products and people.

The popularity of farmers markets is happening at a time when Florida’s agricultural identity is changing.

While the amount of farmed land in Lee County is declining, the number of farms is increasing. There were 134,649 acres of farmland in Lee County in 1997, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2007, the last time the state tallied it up, there were 85,742 acres; however, the number of farms increased from 725 to 944. Collier County’s 278,417 acres of farmland in 1997 had shrunk to 109,934 in 2007, while the number of farm operations rose from 285 to 322. Charlotte County also witnessed significant losses in acreage. Unlike its neighbors to the south, there was a modest 16 percent decrease in farm operations during the same 10-year period.

Downtown Fort Myers COURTESY PHOTO From Marco Island to Port Charlotte, an abundance of farmers markets offer fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a variety of vendors with seafood, sauces, soups, cheeses, chutneys, honey, herbs, spices and baked goods not found in grocery stores. Most markets also have a colorful assortment of handcrafted, non-food goods for sale, from soaps and cosmetics to candles, jewelry and artwork.

Some are taking advantage of the environmental zeitgeist, calling themselves green markets and enforcing strict guidelines that their products be organic or from recycled materials. However, most people use the terms “green market” and “farmers market” interchangeably. Whatever you call them and wherever you find them in Southwest Florida, they usually have these things in common:

• They take place outside, once a week.

• Prices are cheaper, typically, than at grocery stores.

• There are several produce stands, some featuring resellers and others with organic or regularly grown produce from their own acreage.

• There’s often live music, lots of dogs on leashes, tots in strollers and at least a few hippies.

“When I first started doing this, the crowd was a little older. Now there’s a huge range of ages,” says Claudia St. Onge, coordinator for the Cape Coral Farmers Market, which during season can attract a crowd of nearly 7,500 to Club Square every Saturday morning. “With an international focus on the environment and with a struggling economy, a market like this is going to pull in all kinds of people,” she adds.

Teeming with local flavor

Striking up conversations with vendors who proudly divvy out free samples and brag about their growing methods is commonplace and part of the fun. Then there are those who also deliver another kind of local flavor along with their goods.

Horace Brittain isn’t afraid to speak his mind about the produce business and then some. One minute he’s cracking a smile at a baby perched on a young father’s hip at the Downtown Fort Myers Farmers Market while talking up his corn. The next minute, when the customer is gone, he’s trash-talking a fellow vendor who he says “doesn’t grow anything.” The most important thing, he says, is that shoppers “buy local and support local growers, not peddlers.

“If you don’t support who supports your table, you aren’t very smart,” Mr. Brittain maintains. He rails against the automotive industry outsourcing jobs and makes it clear that he don’t care much for President Obama before getting back to the topic of carpetbaggers messing up the farmers markets for true locals like him.

After a few minutes at Mr. Brittain’s booth of tomatoes, beets, cucumbers and more, one comes away having touched a real, down-home Floridian, one who’s a bit rough around the edges and unapologetic about it.

Green begets green

While satisfying the increasing demand for fresh produce markets, the events also serve secondary motives. Most are invaluable marketing tools in and of themselves.

“It’s something we do to bring footprints to downtown Punta Gorda on a Saturday,” says Jerry Presseller. The head of the Downtown Merchants Association took it upon himself to learn the ins and outs of hosting a market and launched one just a year ago. Restaurants and shops that once might have found it more practical to shutter their doors on the weekends are now seeing crowds intent on shopping, eating and drinking after they’ve strolled between the kiosks.

In Naples, Terry Banks, market manager for the Saturday morning Third Street South Farmers Market, agrees. “It brings exposure,” he says about the market that sets up year-round in the parking lot behind Tommy Bahama’s. “It definitely brings people to the restaurants and shops.”

The Third Street South market celebrates its 15th year by moving from the parking lot to the street for one day, Saturday, Dec. 12. Third Street South will be closed from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Broad Avenue South to 13th Avenue South.

“We see this as a great opportunity for our visitors to linger and mingle, perhaps with a fresh muffin and coffee, relaxing in one of our courtyards,” says Justin Collins of Neapolitan Enterprises. “It’s also a great time to get in some Christmas shopping, and maybe lunch at one of our restaurants.”

Among the more than 50 vendors will be Naples Citrus with fresh fruit and juice, Captain Kirk’s Seafood with local fish and shellfish, Farmer Mike with local produce, The Sauce Lady with homemade Italian meals and sauces and Jimmy P’s Butcher Shop and Deli with meat and spice rubs. The market will return to its traditional parking lot location Saturday, Dec. 19.

Good for all

“I grow for flavor,” says Mr. Troop, the vendor with the fresh vanilla beans at the Downtown Fort Myers Farmers Market. Every Thursday before dawn, he packs his truck at the 100-acre farm he owns in Venus, Fla., west of Lake Okeechobee, and heads to the market that sets up under the Caloosahatchee Bridge near Centennial Park. On Saturdays he’s a fixture at the Cape Coral Farmers Market, while his wife runs their stall at the North Naples Green Market. Sundays find the Troops at the Sanibel Island Farmers Market.

For many local farmers like the troops, the fresh markets are their primary source of distribution and income. “If it weren’t for the farmers markets,” Mr. Troop says, “I’d end up shipping. I’d have to change my product. Instead of more quality and taste, I’d have to focus on production.”

Fresh markets continue to blossom and grow, giving farmers like Mr. Troup a profitable way to deliver the fruits of their labor from outlying fields to urban kitchens and dining rooms throughout Southwest Florida. The city slickers who frequent the markets, on the other hand, soak up a taste of the agrarian lifestyle.

Week after week, everyone benefits. 

area farmers markets

COLLIER COUNTY
North Naples Green Market
Collection at Vanderbilt
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through May 8
www.northnaplesgreenmarket.com
City of Marco Island Farmers Market
Veterans Community Park
7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through April 14
www.marcoislandfarmersmarket.com
Third Street South Farmers Market
In the parking lot behind Tommy Bahama’s (except
Dec. 12, when it moves to the street)
7:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday year-round
261-8936
Fairgrounds Flea Market and Farmers
Market
Collier County Fairgrounds
Immokalee Road at 39th Avenue NE
7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday year-round
Immokalee State Farmers Market
424 New Market Road East
Sun-up to sundown every day through May
658-3508
LEE COUNTY
GreenMarket at the Alliance for the Arts
10091 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday year-round
939-2787
Sanibel Island Farmers Market
Tahitian Gardens Shopping Center
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays through April 25
Coconut Point Farmers Market
Coconut Point, Estero
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays
249-9480

Downtown Fort Myers Farmers Market
Centennial Park
Under the U.S. 41 Caloosahatchee Bridge
7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays through May
321-7100
Cape Coral Farmers Market
4706 SE 11th Place
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through May 8
www.capecoralfarmersmarket.com
Bonita Springs Farmers Market
Riverside Park
27300 Old 41 Road
7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays through April
980-9626
Battista Farms Farmers Market
19490 South Tamiami Trail, Estero
8 a.m. to noon Saturdays
CHARLOTTE COUNTY
Punta Gorda Farmers Market
Intersection of West Olympia Avenue and Taylor
Street
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays year-round
(941) 391-4856
Fishermen’s Village/Worden Farms
Market
1200 W. Retta Esplanade
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays, January through
March
(941) 637-4874
Cultural Center of Charlotte County Farmers
Market
2280 Aaron Street, Port Charlotte
8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays
(941) 625-4175, ext. 253