Jewell Tomazin
Special to In Motion
Quinn Wilson / In Motion
Compared to the large buildings and vast selections that grocery stores provide, farmer’s markets are tiny and limited in their products. But that doesn’t stop customers from flocking to their local markets on Saturday mornings.
William and Kathleen Lazarus, the latter of whom is a Senior Professor of English at Daytona State College, have shopped at farmer’s markets for decades in the northern states of Connecticut and Ohio, as well as in Florida. The Lazaruses always stop at markets before buying produce at the grocery store.
“All the markets we’ve been to are pretty small. They usually have around 20 to 30 vendors. The markets up North are pretty much like what we have here. People grow their vegetables or produce or whatever outside of the city and bring it in to the markets,” says William Lazarus.
Mrs. Lazarus adds, “They usually all have pretty much the same things at the same times, too, because of the growing seasons. Sometimes we can only buy certain things at the markets and then we have to get whatever else we need at the grocery store.”
Leo Tetreault used to sell citrus at markets in Titusville and Melbourne and is currently a citrus vendor at the New Smyrna Beach Norwood’s Farmer’s Market. He fresh-squeezes orange juice twice a week and picks oranges from his neighbor’s grove the day before he takes them to the market. It’s no secret that fresh produce like Tetreault’s citrus has a higher quality than what’s sold in a grocery store. The proof lies in the flavor, as Tetreault’s customers confirm.
“All my customers at the market won’t buy juice at the store. They just don’t like it after having my juice,” says Tetreault.
William and Kathleen Lazarus believe that produce bought at farmer’s markets is better than that sold in commercial stores such as Publix and Winn-Dixie.
“There’s just no comparison in the flavor. We can’t stand to buy our vegetables at the grocery store anymore because it doesn’t taste nearly as good. You can tell just by looking at the vegetables at farmer’s markets that it’s fresher than grocery store produce. Plus, it’s overpriced,” says Mrs. Lazarus.
Freshness is the key to good flavor. The sticker on grocery store produce reveals its age. A majority of the time the label will read “Venezuela,” “Guatemala,” “Mexico” or “Brazil,” or it may be from some other foreign country. China, for example, leads the world in the export of apples. The kicker is that this foreign produce and even produce from the United States, has been hauled so far, refrigerated for so long and has passed through so many hands that it loses freshness and quality in the drawn-out shipping process.
“By the time it goes from the grower to the distributor to the store, I mean come on, how fresh could it be? There’s a lot of handling there,” says William “Bill” Tomazin, a fourth generation vegetable farmer and produce vendor.
Farmers realize that the freshness of their produce is unmatched by their competitors, the grocery stores. They see it as an advantage and weigh that in when determining the prices of their produce. Prices get close to or sometimes higher than the prices in grocery stores, but that doesn’t scare customers away.
Tetreault says, “A lot of vendors charge a little bit more than a grocery store would. But the people are willing and there’s no problem paying it because of the higher quality. And they know it’s fresh, especially when it’s local produce. Because a lot of the time they’ll ask me, ‘Where did you get the oranges?’ ‘Where’s the grove?’ And that’s only because they’re interested. They want to know where they come from.”
Shopping at farmer’s markets doesn’t guarantee huge deals and cheap buys. But for the unmatched quality of their produce, a few extra dollars can be well worth it to the consumer.
Despite having fresh and local produce, farmer’s markets do not have near the amount of consumers that grocery stores do. Farmer’s markets are typically only open once a week, putting them at a disadvantage.
Tomazin adds that another problem markets face is not too many people are aware of the markets either, especially the smaller or newer ones.
Tetreault sells his citrus at the Farmer’s Market at Norwood’s Seafood Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach, open from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Tomazin sells his produce at a nearby market called “The Original” New Smyrna Beach Farmers’ Market, which runs from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays. This market is located at Old Fort Park and City Hall on Sams Avenue. A larger market where Tomazin also sells is the Volusia County Farmers Market. The Wednesday market is held from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in DeLand. Another large market in Volusia County is the Daytona Downtown Farmers’ Market. It is open every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the City Island parking lot next to the Jackie Robinson Ballpark.