Gulf Coast Newspapers: "Leave the shopping to the market"

Leave the shopping to the market

Windmill Market Produce Club brings together Baldwin County foods and local consumers

Friday, June 14, 2013

By Jill Clair Gentry Food editor people@gulfcoastnewspapers.com

Amy Ramagosa of Fairhope and her son Burke pick up their produce box at Windmill Market. Ramagosa says she loves teaching her son about different kinds of vegetables and how farmers grow food for their family to eat.

WHAT: Windmill Market Produce Club

WHERE: Windmill Market, corner of Equality and Bancroft streets in Fairhope

WHEN: Pickup is Mondays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Fairhope and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Mobile

MORE INFO: Stop by Windmill Market, call 251-990-8883 or email Maggie Lacey at maggie@windmillmarket.org.

Imagine: you don't have to go to the grocery store every week. The fruits and vegetables you feed your family tonight were harvested earlier today. You're trying vegetables you never would have bought at the grocery store and discovering you love them. You save money on food and are eating more healthful meals.

This might sound idyllic, but it's is a picture of a real-life program available here in Baldwin County — Windmill Market's Produce Club.

Every Monday for the past two years, dozens of people have flocked to the market to pick up a box of fresh and seasonal fruits and vegetables, dairy, bread, meats and specialty items like granola, soap or coffee.

“It's a ready-made meal plan for the week,” says Maggie Lacey, manager of the Windmill Market. “You've got it all packed up and ready to go, and you've got recipes to get you started.”

And every item is grown or made locally.

“It's as fresh as produce gets,” Lacey says. “We talk to the farmers all week long. Sunday nights, they tell us what they've got, and they harvest Monday morning. There's almost nowhere you can go to get produce that fresh.”

Lacey says about 90 percent of the vegetables come from Baldwin County, but for some items, they work with farmers in south Mississippi, Georgia or Florida.

Community Supported Agriculture

Windmill Market formerly hosted a farmers market on Saturdays, but Lacey says farmers couldn't always make it to the market to sell, and they weren't always guaranteed to have buyers for their produce.

Lacey and Windmill owner Gina Walcott began reading about Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) in other parts of the country and wondered if they could do something similar in Baldwin County.

CSAs usually involve customers buying into one farm that offers a diversified selection of produce. However, Lacey thought she could offer more variety and help more farmers and vendors if she gathered items from many different producers.

She connected with Alescia Forland of the Loxley Farm Market, who already had relationships with many farmers on the Gulf Coast. The two work together to put together weekly offerings that showcase the best produce available seasonally.

“By working with all these different farms, not only are we spreading out the economic benefit, but we have more control of variety from a customer standpoint,” Lacey says.

Helping farmers

And it's good for local farmers, too.

“They're not as uncomfortable to plant a crop because they know they have an outlet for it,” Forland says.

And this allows Lacey and Forland to encourage farmers to grow certain crops and to try to grow them organically.

“Our first priority is local, but we try to get as much of it organic or pesticide free as we can,” Lacey says. “So many farmers were not using organic practices — it was just not on their minds. But I feel like we have been able to use this club to help educate farmers to let them know people are looking for that and will buy it.”

Lacey says new customers are often surprised by the way the produce looks. It's not what they see in magazines or at grocery stores.

“You see dirt, or the carrots have funny appendages on them — nothing is perfectly shaped,” says Laura Parker, who has been a Produce Club member since it began in 2011. “It looks like something that's been intimately attached to dirt in recent days.”

Helping families

Forland says she feels good about the work she is doing not only because it helps farmers, but also because she knows it encourages families to eat more healthful foods and spend more time together in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

“I think if more people knew about the CSA boxes they would participate,” Forlad says. “It's very good for the community and for the family because it promotes stay-at-home cooking and eating. It's really good for the family to cook local vegetables and fruits. It's good bonding time, and it promotes health, too. When you cook, you actually have to spend time together in the kitchen.”

Parker says she knows her family is eating more vegetables than before she joined, and it is more convenient and affordable for her as well.

“I don't have to go grocery shopping during the week again after I pick up the box,” she says. “I buy meats to supplement, but I've got all the vegetables and fruits I need.”

It also has made her more aware of the seasons and what is naturally available during different times of the year.

“I really like eating and cooking with the rhythms of the seasons as opposed to getting food from Argentina or whatever, whenever I want it,” she says. “You're not going to have citrus fruits all year because they're not produced all year, and you're not going to have potatoes and fresh green beans in January. You learn to eat the way your grandparents ate.”