Good Fruit Grower

December 2013

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Going to market Farmers' markets are booming, and fruit growers are capitalizing. by Richard Lehnert National count of farmers market directory listings 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2013 8,144 2012 7,864 2011 7,175 2010 6,132 2009 5,274 2008 4,685 2006 4,385 2004 3,706 2002 3,137 2000 2,863 0 1998 2,746 1000 1996 2,410 2000 1994 1,755 These 12-bushel boxes, specially made of finished lumber, fit the needs of marketers dealing with many lots stacked in box trucks, says Sidney Kuhn. The trailer was built to fit the smaller boxes. SOURCE: UDA-AMS Marketing Services Division. armers' markets are the traditional means, worldwide, by which farmers bring produce from their farms to their city cousins. Much of the developed world departed from that tradition years ago with the development of middlemen and retail supermarkets, but in the United States, there has been a resurgence in farmers' markets over the last two decades. In 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were 8,144 farmers' markets in the United States, up 3.6 percent from 2012. That is actually the smallest year-to-year increase in the last five years. Since 1994, when USDA began publishing its National Farmers Market Directory, the number has more than tripled. Not surprisingly, fruit growers in the eastern United States—located an hour or two from huge cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City—have leapt at the opportunity. Not only do the big cities have farmers' markets, their suburbs and the affluent folks living there have them, too. Usually they are once-a-week affairs, having no permanent infrastructure—just a bunch of vendors in a parking lot. F Kuhn Orchards At Kuhn Orchards, in Cashtown in Pennsylvania's Adams County, the Kuhn family attends nine farmers' markets each week and also makes deliveries to people who subscribe to their Community Managing processor by-products to create manure-free compost Authorized Dealers: Central Washington Eq., Washington Tractor, Walla Walla Farmers Co. Op., Hood River Eq., Linn Benton Tractor Co., Chehalem Valley Orchard Eq., Burnips Equipment Co., and Paige Equipment Co. Where Where Compost COMPOST Happens happens. Air-O-Fan Products Corporation / 507 E. Dinuba Avenue / Reedley, CA 93654 naturalselectionfarms.com 509-837-3501 Sunnyside, WA 80 DECEMBER 2013 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com

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