The Salem Farmer’s Market has been open for the summer season in the pavilion next to the Ozark Natural and Cultural Resource Center since May, according to their Facebook page. Every Saturday morning, vendors gather in the space along with members of the community, who come to shop for the local produce, plants, eggs, and other products. Organizers like Farmer’s Market manager Mike Dunn (Guidestar Farms) say they envision the Farmer’s Market as a place for the whole community to gather, not just to buy produce and other local products, but also to engage with their neighbors.
“We’d like to have it be a place where people want to come out and enjoy a Saturday morning and find local suppliers of the foods and things that they need, and where vendors are able to make enough and do well enough to support them producing that food,” said Dunn, when he spoke to The Salem News toward the end of market hours on June 24. “I think it’s nice. It slowed down a little bit with the heat in the afternoon, but we had a pretty good crowd through most of the day. A lot of people come and talk to each other, and kind of make it a social event. I think that’s a really nice thing to have.”
Another organizer, Andres Perez, does marketing for the Farmer’s Market. Perez signs his emails with “CFO (Chief Farming Officer)”. He feels the same as Dunn, and hopes to see the market grow into a staple of the community.
“We’re trying to make it an environment where it’s not just ‘go buy your tomatoes and leave’, it’s more like a family activity, like ‘hey, this is where we’re getting our produce, this is where we’re getting our groceries, or candles, or soap, or whatever,’” said Perez. “To make this an every-Saturday family event is ultimately the goal; to have the entire town come out here and do this every Saturday with us.”
Dunn said he is in his third year of selling at the market, and he said he’s seen some growth since he started.
“I think we’ve had a little growth in the last two years in the vendors. The customers, it’s a little harder to gauge. I think we have some new customers, and some of the older ones we haven’t seen as much,” he said. “But certainly, with Andres’ marketing that he’s doing with the social media avenues, that’s kind of reaching a new segment of the local population, bringing new faces. He’s doing a really good job of highlighting different vendors and communicating about what’s going on with the market.”
Perez, like Dunn, also says he has seen the growth of the endeavor since he moved to the area last year.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in the volume of people that are coming to the market. I just got some feedback from the vendors, last weekend and this weekend have been pretty busy, so the actual revenues went in where it needs to go for the vendors, which is in their cash boxes,” Perez said. “That’s what we want. We want vendors to be successful, and we want the community to be in touch with where their food comes from. Just making sure we support the local economy before we go leave money at Walmart. And, it tends to be better stuff anyway.”
Though Dunn and Perez have noted growth over their time with the market, they say they have goals to grow the market even further in the future. For Perez, exposure is key, he said.
“I think this year the goal is to have more impact with the community, so exposure, exposure, exposure,” said Perez. “We need the community to know that local vendors are here. These vendors are not bringing produce or products from other areas to sell them here. Everything is produced, made, manufactured (locally). A lot of us will try to use as many ingredients or prime, raw materials from the area (as we can). We’re trying to really encapsulate the local. It’s just driving more traffic and driving more vendors. Ideally, we’ll have 50 vendors here every year, right now we’re up to 25.”
As the market grows, receiving more vendors and customers, Perez mentioned several goals to continue to develop the market as a community event.
“One of the big things that we would like to see here is a little more on the artistic side. We would love to get in touch with local musicians, people that kind of want to come and showcase their songs or their art here. We want to be able to provide a venue for them to do that, and it also allows the community to come in and see what’s going on,” he said. “We’d like to see more food trucks. We’re trying to invite a couple of local trucks to come and set up here. Ideally, if we had a permanent one every Saturday, I think that would be best.”
Non-profit organizations are another community-oriented aspect of the Farmer’s Market that Dunn says he wishes to grow. The Farmer’s Market waives booth fees for non-profit organizations who wish to come to the market to engage face-to-face with community members.
“We had a Missouri adoption and foster care group come in, which helps kind of be a liaison between parents that want to adopt or foster care, and the state regulatory agencies, to help take care of all of the paperwork and things. If there were any other non-profits that wanted to set up here just to reach the community, that’s something that’s started, and I’d be in favor of them doing that,” said Dunn. “We’ve only had one this year, and one last year.”
Perez and Dunn have also been working to develop the market during the winter season.
“We start in May, and run until September, that’s the big season,” said Perez. “However, we started pioneering last winter. We ran September, October, November, December, January, inside the Creative Arts building. It was just a few vendors, no more than 10 of us. We kind of kept it going throughout the whole winter season. We kind of want to see if we can do that this year at a higher scale.”
Though less fresh products are sold during winter months, the winter season is a continued opportunity for vendors to make money, and for locals to buy non-perishable products, such as crafts and baked goods, eggs, and dairy products, according to Dunn.
“We’ll see if we can grow that or not, and kind of get enough customer flow for the number of vendors,” Dunn said.
Said Perez, “On our farm, in our greenhouse, we wanted to have produce available in the winter as well. We’re setting ourselves up for that. It’s probably going to be challenging… We do less perishable items, so we tend to show up in the winter.”
Overall, Perez says the market is improving, and moving toward the goal of benefiting local vendors and the community at large.
“I think the variety of selection, it’s improving. There’s definitely room for bigger, better things, but I think slowly we’re getting there. The biggest thing is if we have the exposure, we have enough eyes on us, then therefore it all kind of trickles down and everybody sells more. Everybody is happier,” he said.
The Farmer’s Market is located in the pavilion next to the Ozark Natural and Cultural Resource Center on Main Street in Salem and will be open for their regular summer season every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to noon through September.
