Bringing Fresh Food Back to the Neighborhood

At one and a quarter acres, Evan Dayringer's farm is small. The goods he's selling on a mid-June day include modest amounts of lettuce, dandelion greens, shallots, and his girlfriend's homemade Bee Bars ("tasty, playful little treats that you eat and then you feel good," Dayringer says). Dayringer is the kind of young, up-and-coming farmer who hasn't yet found a place in the institution of the Saturday Ann Arbor Farmers Market, but he discovered an ideal venue in the year-old Cobblestone Farm Market.

 

"The Saturday morning market in Kerrytown is awesome, but it's really hard to get a spot," Dayringer says. "There are a lot of people with seniority who are waiting to get in ahead of you."

 

Not so at Cobblestone, which hosts around 20 vendors every Tuesday from 4-7 p.m. at Buhr Park's Cobblestone Farm, with room for plenty more. Dayringer started selling at the market when it opened last summer, and he enjoyed the experience so much that he returned this year both as a vendor and as a member of the market's eight-member organizing committee.

 

"It's just so pleasant," Dayringer says. "You're in a park, you're on the grass instead of concrete, there's kids playing, and there's thousands of people within walking distance."

 

Buhr Park neighborhood resident Jeannine Palms got the ball rolling on the Cobblestone project last year, after having discussions with her neighbors about the need for a local alternative to the downtown farmer's market. However, Palms says she has no intentions for the two markets to compete.

 

"We didn't want anybody to stop going to one place and start going to another place," Palms says. "We wanted to have a farmer's market for people who don't go to a farmer's market already, or who want a market to go to during the week. I don't know that there's ever too many, because the more there are, the more it encourages young people to go into farming."

 

For an up-and-coming vendor, the barrier to entry is low. A new vendor's first day is free of charge, and $10 for each market day the vendor chooses to attend thereafter. It is required, however, that farmers use organic practices. Bakers are encouraged to use local ingredients, low sugar, and whole grains.

 

"We want it to be a healthy market," Palms says.

 

Palms sees the market not only as a source for fresh food, but as a fresh way for Buhr Park residents and other visitors to socialize, build community, and learn from each other. Each week features a full slate of music, children's activities, and what Palms calls "re-skilling" classes--lessons in trades that have fallen by the wayside, like fire-making or bicycle repair. The June 25 market features a drum circle, storytellers, a jazz guitar performance, and more. 

 

Stephanie Ariganello, who staffs the Mother Loaf's stand weekly at Cobblestone, says the market has a "great sense of community."

 

"It was really nice coming back in the spring and seeing all the people we saw last year, and the kids all a year older," Ariganello adds. "It really was like a reunion."

 

Neighbors from Buhr Park and beyond have responded in increasing numbers. Palms says that last year's markets attracted a weekly average of 200-300 visitors, but turnout for the first and second markets of 2013 spiked to 500 and 700 visitors, respectively. Dayringer says the new market's success is emblematic of a continuing shift among consumers from big-box grocery stores to hometown producers.

 

"People will get more and more of their food from a farmers' market as it becomes more a part of their lives," he says. "This is right on people's commutes, or it's right by their houses. It's not just something that could happen. It is happening."

Patrick Dunn is an Ann Arbor-based freelance writer and contributor to Metromode and Concentrate.

All photos by Doug Coombe

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