On the town green in Trumbull, Kent, Middletown, Danbury and New Milford, in downtown parking lots in Greenwich, Shelton and Seymour, at Grace Baptist church in Waterbury and St. Michael's church in Naugatuck, at a school in Weston, the town hall in Thomaston and a playground in Bristol, on Wall Street in Bridgeport, Main Street in Stamford, and Orange Street in New Haven and at 36 other sites around Connecticut, farmers and eaters come together to celebrate their mutual dependence and to help sustain each other.

Farmers need people to buy and eat the food they grow-to appreciate the flowers and enjoy the herbs. Everyone who eats needs farmers. Many of us yearn for the real flavor of fresh local produce, for a connection to the seasonality of local fruits and vegetables and to the soil.

Farmers markets are an old and still very effective way to make those connections. Held at a regular time and place, usually once a week, local farmers set up displays of their produce in these "sell-only-what-you-grow" markets supervised by the Department of Agriculture and local health districts. One-hundred-and-sixty-five Connecticut farms sell at these markets around the state. Some of them open in May. All of them are open by July when corn and tomatoes begin ripening, and stay open well into the fall.

Farmers markets traditionally allow growers and eaters to get to know each other. They are an important part of many cultures around the world and are growing in popularity, not just in Connecticut, but all over the United States. Farmers markets are a nearly pure example of a free-market system. When Communism fell in the former Soviet Union, the new opportunity to sell their produce at farmers markets was welcomed warmly by small farmers there.

The number of markets in Connecticut is increasing steadily. Last year there were 40. Just last week the 50th market opened on Main Street in Beacon Falls. It was organized by several mothers who really liked shopping with their children at the Seymour Farmers Market last summer and thought that a market closer to home on Friday afternoon would be great. After a winter of making arrangements with the town and with the state, finding a site, and with somewhat more difficulty, finding enough nearby farmers willing and able to sell at the market, the organizers launched it with a very successful opening celebration.

The Seymour Farmers market was started just last year by the local business revitalization council in an effort to bring people back to the downtown. Some other markets in the state are old and well-established. All the markets are an important element in the local economic system and one of the best ways of protecting and preserving farms in our communities.

As nearby supermarkets have been transferred from local to regional to global ownership in the last year, they were no longer interested in buying from local farmers. If farmers can't sell what they grow, their farms will become subdivisions and strip malls.

The global supermarket system of selling produce demands very large quantities of low cost, always-available fruits and vegetables. This system requires very large farms that use a lot of toxic sprays and machinery, and take advantage of numerous government and environmental subsidies in order to lower their production costs.

The customers at the farmers markets, on the other hand, are more interested in freshness and flavor. They crave an experience that is more direct than that provided by supermarket produce that's traveled all the way from Chile or California. They like being able to talk to the farmers, to ask about varieties, to learn about farmers' growing methods.

This year, Suzanne and I are taking produce from our farm to farmers markets in two nearby towns . Market day always involves lots of harvesting, cleaning and preparation. Bright pink and creamy yellow new potatoes are dug from the dark soil and washed. We pull up garlic, carrots and onions, cut a wide variety of fresh greens, herbs and colorful flowers. We pick berries and peas. Some farmers are already harvesting corn, tomatoes, summer squash and beans. Others will be picking these soon.

A listing of the Farmers Markets in Connecticut is available from the CT Department of Agriculture, State Office Building, Hartford, CT 06106. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

See you at the Farmers Market!

This is Bill Duesing, Living on the Earth

This page and its contents are copyright © 1996-1997 by WSHU-FM, Fairfield, CT, and by Bill Duesing.