Eating good in the neighborhood

By Kyle Sutton, The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jun 25, 2008 @ 07:18 AM

Maybe it’s the comfort of knowing exactly where your food is coming from, or the opportunity to meet your local farmer in person and get to know their growing techniques first-hand. Perhaps it’s just that the produce always is so fresh.

Whatever the attraction may be, local farmers' markets continue to sprout up along the South Shore.

In Plymouth, the boom has been so good that it led organizers to launch a second farmers' market, in addition to the one held Thursdays through October at Stephen’s Field. The new Saturday market begins this Saturday at the Courthouse Green on Court Street, a decision market manager Barbara Anglin hopes will draw residents and visitors to the downtown area.

"We were so surprised right from the very beginning five years ago at how hungry the people of the Plymouth area are for fresh, local food," she said.

Much of the appeal for coming out to the farmers' market is because of the decline in farm stands, said Anglin, where he said many people went for their produce.

"A lot of them make reference to memories of fresh corn and homegrown fresh tomatoes," she said. "People are busy and people are working so not everyone is able to grow their own."

Early season showings at the Plymouth farmers' market will include greens, lettuce, sugar snap peas, rhubarb, seedlings, small plants and "berries galore," Anglin said. Mid-July brings hot sellers such as tomatoes and corn.

The "fresh" idea has also caught on at Middleboro food retailer Cirelli Marketplace, which launched its first farmers' market last week and will host one every Friday through October. The plan is not only meant to introduce residents to local growers and crafts, manager John Santos said, but on the business side, it will give Cirelli the chance to source those items to sell in the store.

Santos said the farmers' markets will initially focus on crafts vendors through June and July, and will introduce produce such as melons and squash as they come into season in July, August and October.

"The idea of getting the story from the guy who made it … somehow makes it taste better and feel better," Santos said. "There’s that added value from the product."

And with the recent salmonella outbreak in tomatoes, which has forced many commercial food chains to pull the item from their menus altogether, consumers are even more concerned with knowing where their food is coming from, market workers agreed. Consequently, they’re turning to their local growers.

"(The food is) coming literally from the field to the farmer’s truck and then you take them home," Anglin said. "There’s far less opportunity for them to be contaminated."

Much of the interest in locally-grown food also stems from the rise of the Slow Food movement, a response to the fast food market that pushes for a more sustainable food system favoring quality and environmental sustainability.

"People are choosing to come to the market for a variety of (reasons)," said Sylvia Schuler, a volunteer for the Hingham farmers' market. "I think a lot of it is rolled together"

At the Hingham market, which began its Saturday showings in late May, the seller has been strawberries, along with plenty of leafy vegetables, Schuler said. The hype, though, is for certain other red-fleshed plant that otherwise may be hard to come by.

"People just can’t wait until the tomatoes come in," Schuler said. "They’re ripe as anything."