Vendors at Memphis Farmer’s Market Encourage Buying Local

By Brooke Luna

Watch The Downtown Memphis Farmer's Market: Benefitting Both Local Farmers and Consumers by Brooke Luna on Vimeo

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In a time where family farmers are struggling in the fight against corporate agriculture businesses, vendors at the Downtown Memphis Farmer’s Market are encouraging people to buy produce at local farmer’s markets.

Purchasing produce at farmer’s markets, the vendors say, not only benefits the farmers, but also the consumers who receive foods free of chemicals like pesticides and herbicides.

Darlene Fenster of Fenster Farms, a family farm that grows all produce hydroponically, meaning not in soil, but with water in a nutrient solution, says people won’t find the quality that farmer’s markets offer anywhere else.

“It’s as fresh as you can get,” Fenster says. “This lettuce came out of our trough this morning, so it hasn’t been stuck in a warehouse or anything like that.”

Another vendor at the market is Jill Forrester who runs Whitton Farms in Whitton, Arkansas with her husband, where they grow a variety of vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers.

Forrester says the farmer’s market offers people the opportunity to meet the farmers who grow their food and learn about their growing practices, while also giving back to the community.

“Your money stays in the local economy,” Forrester says. “You’re actually helping a business within the same region that you live in.”

The Downtown Memphis Farmer’s Market has been providing the city with fresh produce every Saturday in April until October since first opening in 2006. The market operates from 8 am to 1 pm and also offers live music and local food trucks on site.