Back home in Missouri, the concept of the farmer’s market is a staple in every town, urban or rural, although the success of each market relative to the success of local commercial competitors varies between regions. In my hometown of Columbia, the farmer’s market is modest, boasting no more than thirty or so vendors on even the busiest Saturdays, and appears as a small cluster of white canopies three times a week in the parking lot of the activities and recreation center (for reasons I will soon elaborate on). There is only one vendor who sells ready-to-eat food, and no craftsmen or artists selling their work. On the occasion there is a live band present, the music is often accompanied by the shouts of the local boys’ soccer teams holding practice barely 100 meters away.

Given what my previous notion of a farmer’s market was, the Ithaca Farmer’s Market was a total surprise – over 150 vendors, a designated space, and products ranging from Cambodian food to handmade clothing to pesto (as a side note, I highly recommend The Garden of Earthly Mirth’s Garlic Greens Pesto). The founding idea was the same as that of the Columbia Farmer’s Market, but somewhere along the way the two markets divulged from each other, for better or for worse. To me, the evolution of the Ithaca Farmer’s Market into a local attraction – I believe GRF Sam mentioned that around 30% of market-goers are non-Ithaca residents – was eye-opening. In Columbia, where the spirit of Wal-Mart’s Sam Walton (an alum of my own high school) survives in every city bill thanks to his mysteriously powerful descendants, there is no way for the farmer’s market to ever expand its territory – and, therefore, no way for it to ever match even half the economic and cultural success of the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. Oh, well: business is business, I guess. If I were a Walton, I would probably also do everything I could to maintain my family’s success.

While it does seem a little sad that there may never be a huge locally-made market in my hometown, Columbia is not Ithaca and Ithaca is not Columbia, and thus the presence, impact, and products of the local agriculturalist identity in both cities are necessarily different; for starters, Columbia doesn’t have quite the range of apple products as Ithaca (a definite drawback to life in the midwest). In the grand scheme of things, Columbia makes its money off other attractions, and I spend most of the year in Ithaca anyways – but I think I’ll wander a little longer and a little more often at the Columbia Farmer’s Market next time I’m in town.