Straight from the farmer’s mouth: Support local agriculture at Saturday’s Growers Fare

Coming this weekend is the farmer’s market to end all farmers’ markets.

The West Michigan Growers Group, a consortium of farmers that became a nonprofit in January, is partnering with Michigan State University Extension and the Downtown Market for the 2017 Growers Fare: CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] Open House, which will give our local residents a chance to connect with, and support, area farmers. The third annual event will bring a coalition of more than 10 farms to the Downtown Market’s second floor banquet ballroom from 10am to 1:30pm this Saturday, March 25.

Market vendors will offer food samples that have used local farm produce. Along with being child-friendly, the event is geared to families seeking to support locally grown food. Those who attend Saturday’s gig will be able to get more information about, and sign up for, CSAs, programs that allow residents to purchase fresh produce from local growers. Along with produce shares, select vendors will also be offering milk and egg shares as part of their CSAs.

Farmers will provide demonstrations and be eager to field questions from any newcomers to the CSA model. The farms range from distances as far away as Kent City and Ada and as close as the south side of Grand Rapids.
The farms that will be represented this weekend include:

• Blackbird Farms
• Blandford Nature Center Farm
• Chimney Creek Farm
• Earthkeeper Farm
• Full Hollow Farm
• Green Wagon Farm
• Groundswell Community Farm
• Mud Lake Farm
• New City Urban Farm
• Plainsong Farm
• Schuler Farms
• Visser Farms
• Woodbridge Dairy Farm

The event will be a great chance to ask farmers about their practices, pricing and products they offer. All WM Grower’s Group farms are committed to bringing sustainably grown products to their local communities.

While the Growers Group is a relatively new nonprofit, it has operated as a farmer-to-farmer organization since April 12, with the group meeting for monthly potlucks and farm tours in order to exchange ideas, tools and organize shared labor and other costs.

Be sure to come on down to the Downtown Market this Saturday and poke your head in and learn about the food that is being grown locally right from the...farmer’s mouth.

For more information about Growers Fare, visit www.wmgrowersgroup.org.

Ken Miguel-Cipriano is Rapid Growth’s innovation and jobs editor. To reach Ken, you can email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter and Instagram.