The St. Paul Farmers' Market
We parked in the gravel under the Highway 52 overpass. The trucks' roar echoed in that dark space, and the smell of diesel fumes singed our nostrils. This is the landscape of downtown St. Paul.
But after just a short walk on the city sidewalks, we reached the St. Paul Farmers' Market, where the sights and sounds transported us to an agricultural bonanza, right in the middle of Lowertown. Rows of red rhubarb and green lettuce, fresh flowers, vegetables seedlings. Scents of fresh cilantro and basil and rosemary wafted through the air, mixed with the aromas of sausage and bison burgers. A jazz band played at one end of the market, though we were more focused on listening to the vendors tell about their produce. I sampled the sweet rhubarb bread, the cheese, and my favorite, the fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, wrapped in rice paper. Though my brain understood that I was in the center of the metro, my spirit was transported back to my great aunt's farm generations ago, miles away, years away from the office towers and the warehouses and the Interstate highway. Most of all, I was safely distanced from my mundane office, only four blocks away. This, the St. Paul Farmers' Market, promises a haven of agricultural tranquility in the shadow of the towers. Photos copyright © 2012, Featherstone Creative, LLC.
From the BlogIt Was a Cold Day in April 4/28/2012 The girl behind the meat display wore a crocheted cap, a winter coat, and gloves. "When I have to stand over here by the table, the wind blows right up my coat. My butt is cold!" Such is the life of a meat vendor at the St. Paul Farmers' Market on opening day. ... Click here to read the full blog entry Always Local in Lowertown
Ever wonder how long your vegetables rode on the back of a truck, wilting, their nutrients and flavor seeping out? Or what pesticides were used in California, or Mexico, or wherever the food was grown?
My favorite part about the St. Paul Farmers' Market is that all produce is required to be grown within 50 miles, guaranteeing that the truck ride was, at most, an hour. (Shelf-stable products such as wild rice or packaged cheese must be produced within Minnesota or Wisconsin.) It must be sold directly from grower to the consumer, no middlemen allowed. Owned and operated by the St. Paul Growers' Association, the St. Paul Farmers Market has been around since 1853, making the market older than the state of Minnesota. Although it has moved to various locations as the city has grown up around it, the market has always kept its requirement of local produce in season, and dry goods available year-round. There is one disadvantage to the local produce rule: You can buy only what is in season. If you want to make fresh salsa in April, for example, you won't find tomatoes or onions or jalapenos at the St. Paul market. The market's web site has a wonderful chart showing what is in season. The compromises? Either buy what's in season at the farmers' market and then go to the supermarket for the rest (a method that works well with the smaller, less crowded suburban markets listed below); or try the Minneapolis market, which allows both local growers and resellers. But if you want the freshest locally grown produce, you have to love the St. Paul 50-mile rule. The only way to get fresher produce is to grow is in your own backyard. Photo by Amy Mingo from Minnetonka, MN, USA (A Bounty of Beautiful Produce) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons St. Paul Farmers' Market in the SuburbsLive out in Savage, Burnsville, or another outlying area, and don't want to drive into downtown on the weekend?
Want to avoid the crowds of the downtown market? Many suburbs have their own markets, and several have asked the St. Paul market to run it for them. At these satellite locations, you'll find the same high-quality local produce, often by vendors who also sell downtown. The following satellites have featured pages on this web site (and the other branches are forthcoming):
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Copyright © 2012, Featherstone Creative, LLC. Where noted, photos are copyright of the respective owners and used with permission or via Creative Commons license. Otherwise, photos are copyright of Featherstone Creative, LLC; these photos may be used on the web if you (a) give credit to Featherstone Creative, LLC, and (b) link back to this site.
This site is independent and not affiliated with any farmers' market or growers' association.
Links to the farmers' markets' web sites are provided as a courtesy to the reader and are not endorsed or paid by any farmers' market or growers' association.
This page may generate income based on affiliate relationships with our partners, including Amazon, Google, eBay, Zazzle, and others.
This site is independent and not affiliated with any farmers' market or growers' association.
Links to the farmers' markets' web sites are provided as a courtesy to the reader and are not endorsed or paid by any farmers' market or growers' association.
This page may generate income based on affiliate relationships with our partners, including Amazon, Google, eBay, Zazzle, and others.
