Farm Fresh Rhode Island already has 25 farmers’ markets on its roster, but it keeps getting more requests from people who want to be able to buy fresh produce close to home. It’s reached a point where the farms can barely keep up.
The owners of Johnston’s Cedar Edge Farm, for example, go to four of the markets, on Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and have gotten requests to do more.
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“It’s just a matter of being able to get work done on the farm in addition to selling,” said Auburn Cole, who farms and sells produce with her husband, who is part of the Kocab family, which owns 10 acres of farmland in Johnston and rents two acres in Wyoming.
Most of the 600 farms in Rhode Island are family-owned and operated, said Sheri Griffin, market coordinator and development director for Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Most of them are smaller than 100 acres, and many of the farmers face pressure to sell their land to developers.
“We are trying to intercede with people thinking of selling their farms, and make them realize this is a viable business,” she said.
But most of the farms have limited resources, such as employees they can pay to help them grow and harvest larger crops, produce more eggs, meat or dairy, etc. to meet the demand.
Six of the seven members of the Kocab family, for example, have full-time jobs, Cole said. They ran the farm as a hobby for years before turning it into a side business about seven years ago.
Running a successful farm business takes time and planning.
The selling season starts as early as May and ends as late as November, Griffin said. Farmers then plan for the next year, and if they know demand is there, they can plan to grow more to sell more.
For example, during the Atkins diet craze, the farmers’ potato and sweet corn sales suffered, so they switched gears and planted more vegetables with low carbohydrate content.
Planning for a new market, however, is more complex because it’s difficult to know how attendance will be.
Good markets take time to become established, and it takes a lot of effort for farmers to attend, Griffin said. Many pick the produce that morning.
“They have to make business decisions on what markets to attend,” she said.
Brian Simmons, owner of Simmons Farm in Middletown, said he’s gotten “quite a few” e-mails this year about bringing produce and meat to new farmers’ markets.
“But we’re trying to be consistent and realistic about what we can do,” he said.
Simmons Farm sells certified organic vegetables, eggs and meat at the farmers’ market in downtown Providence on Fridays, at the Aquidneck Growers’ Market in Middletown on Saturdays and at the Aquidneck Growers’ Market in Newport on Wednesdays.
Simmons and his wife, who own and run the 110-acre farm, chose those locations they fit well with their schedules.
But Simmons said he might consider selling at the new farmers’ market on Mondays outside the Whole Foods Market on North Main Street in Providence.
That market is particularly good for local farmers, Griffin said, because it is convenient for shoppers. People don’t have to go one place for groceries and another place for locally grown produce.
“That says something about Whole Foods,” she said, adding that having the farmers’ markets outside actually creates competition for the store itself.
But support from the business sector is not all that Rhode Island farmers need to stay viable.
They could use resources, such as a slaughterhouse for fresh meats. There are none in Rhode Island, Griffin said. It could cut down on shipping costs if there were one in the state.
Dairy farmers need an in-state place to make cheese for the same reason, she said. And produce farmers need access to a commercial kitchen so that they can make value-added products such as salsa that can be sold-year round.
