Forecaster Forum: To 'know your farmer' is to live better

From pressherald.mainetoday.com May 31, 2007

By TESS NACELEWICZ

Staff Writer

FALMOUTH — Frank Breggia listed his reasons for shopping at the Cumberland Farmers' Market on Wednesday: the food is fresh and, as a Falmouth business owner, he likes knowing his money is going back into the local economy.

"I'm glad there's more of these going on," said Breggia, a self-employed electrical contractor who routinely interrupts his work day to stop at a farmers' market whenever he sees one.

Now he and other community residents have another reason to stop: The Cumberland Farmers' Market -- held on Wednesdays in Falmouth and on Saturdays in Cumberland -- will be doing business on Thursdays in Yarmouth.

The Yarmouth market opens for the season this afternoon and will be held each week from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church at 326 Main St. until October.

Besides adding a new location, the Cumberland Farmers' Market also is continuing to expand and diversify its vendors.

For example, shoppers this year can buy everything from lobsters to homemade soap and aprons as well as traditional offerings such as fresh produce and flowers. And if they get tired, they can relax by getting a chair massage or a hand, face and scalp massage.

Such growth and diversification are coming to characterize farmers' markets around the state, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture.

The number of markets is on the rise, said Deanne Herman, the department's marketing manager. She said that in 1970, there was one farmers' market -- in Portland. The count this year showed 62 markets, up from 54 in 2000, she said.

And Herman said "another trend that is happening, a lot of the markets are getting deeper in many ways in variety of produce and the number of vendors." She said Maine farmers are diversifying to meet a growing demand for a variety of fresh and local goods.

The Cumberland Farmers' Market, now in its 11th year, will open for the season on Saturday, June 16, at its traditional location at Greely High School in Cumberland Center. The hours are 8:30 a.m. until noon.

Its Wednesday market runs from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Wal-Mart parking lot off Route 1 in Falmouth. It opened for the season this week.

Among new vendors this year is Klenda Seafood, which sells lobsters, steamers and other goods from a small truck. Brenda Klenda, weighing clams for customers Wednesday, said she thought a farmers' market would be a good way to expand the small South Portland seafood business she and her husband run. "I'm so glad that they let me join," she said.

Shannon Grauer, owner of Casco Bay Soap Co. in Freeport, is also new. Her homemade vegetable-oil soaps, in country scents such as lavender and apple pie, fit into a farmers' market because they're healthy and natural, Grauer said. "And farmers need to clean up too," she said.

Afternoon Tea and Company, a Cumberland business specializing in custom-blended teas, has been at the market several seasons but has a new offering this year: gluten-free baked goods. The pastries Wednesday included gingerbread and black-and-white cookies.

Owner Leslie Fitzgerald said customers in previous years had asked if she had any gluten-free goods, and she decided to bake some after learning she suffered from gluten intolerance.

The market doesn't lack traditional vendors. Their offerings Wednesday included fresh eggs, milk, meat, rhubarb and fiddleheads, as well as seedlings and cut flowers.

Kay Fowler of Spring Brook Farm in Cumberland, one of the founders of the market, said the wide range of offerings is driving its success. "It brings more people in by being diversified," she said.

Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at:

tnacelewicz@pressherald.com