Hmmm... the spouse visited the market today and said that a vendor has blueberries labelled "Home Grown" which she said were purchased at the Eastern Market (Detroit), having come from Traverse City. Good enough; we'll eat them, but this reminds me that all last summer I saw signs in the Andersons produce section : "Home Grown" squash, cucumbers, etc. Were those grown at the Andersons' family home? :-)
I'm thinking the term "home grown" doesn't have any real meaning. I know "Local" food can come from a 5-state area. But really, I guess I'm miffed that a vendor at the Toledo Farmer's Market is knowingly misrepresenting her wares.
I was wondering the same thing today when I was there. It sure seemed like a lot of vendors had food that was not locally in season yet.
I find it to be a little deceiving when I think of a Farmers market. I think it is people selling what they have grown on their farms, but that is certainly not the case for all of the vendors at the Toledo Farmer's Market
Some farmers at local farmers markets will sell produce that was grown in southern Ohio and possibly further south because that same item is not ready to be harvested in our area.
Repeating what I just posted in another thread, these links may not answer your questions completely, but the info could be a guide.
Image of the PDF calendar. click to enlarge
Looks like there's corn SOMEWHERE in Ohio for me on the 4th. LOL!
I interpret "home grown" as grown in a small farm and not some huge 2k acre commercial farm. Not necessarily local.
If you look closely, you will find non-local (likely commercially grown) items at the Farmer's Market even at the peak of harvest season in this area. I've come to accept this - while being able to tell the difference - knowing that most any produce I can buy at the FM will be of higher quality than what I can find at my local fill-in-the-blank mega-chain store.
That being said, we went to The Anderson's at Monroe and Talmadge Saturday morning "for a few items" and racked up a tab of $130 because the produce was especially high quality. Much of it obviously was commercially grown but high quality nonetheless - and there were some great bargains to be had.
I work for a company that sells wholesale produce. We used to sell to a guy that would come in and buy a lot of our distressed product that was going in the dumpster. We later found out he was taking it downtown to The Farmers Market and selling it there. We stopped selling to him...
I've never been to the Detroit Eastern Market. Is it just a farmer's market or is it more like the West Side Market in Cleveland?
Much more like the West Side market in Cleveland. If you go to the Eastern Market, there's a bar/restaurant called Vivio's. Order up a Bloody Mary and a couple orders of mussels. They're unbelievably good.
Very cool. We love going to the West Side Market, but its like a 2hr drive on the Turnpike so we don't go very often. May have to head up there
