FARMERS' MARKET RESOURCES
Good Reading   |   Scales   |   WIC Checks   |   Regulations & Permits   |   An Insurance Question

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Good Reading about Farmers' Markets
and Related Topics

The Turkey Farm has a good article in their Summer 2002 edition of The Turkey Times newsletter on An easier way to food security. It's about half way down the page, and talks about how small local farms make for better food security than large distant farms.

Local Food is fully discussed pro and con at the U.K.-based Reference.com, and they also have a great page on Farmers' Markets. It is intriguing to see how many of their concerns are the same as those on this side of the pond.

Growing for Market, "the national monthly newsletter for direct market farmers." They have a good list of books at their online store.

Open Air-Market Net, "the World Wide Guide to Farmers' Markets, Street Markets, Flea Markets and Street Vendors". A nice site with lots of links to markets and market resources.

Organic Volunteers is a website where workers looking for a farm, or farmers looking for workers, can add their information. The site can be searched by many criteria.

Interview with Alice Waters.

In Search of Food Security from the Seasonal Chef.

Scales

A good set of hanging scales can be hard to find. Some of the best brands are Chatillon and Detecto, but there are others. However Hanson seems to make no hanging scales that are legal for trade, so although they are less money, they are not worth it.

Two websites where scales can be purchased online are www.scalesgalore.com in Brooklyn which carries a wide range of scales of all brands and types; and Ohio-based www.chatillon.com which is the actual manufacturer of the most popular hanging scales for farmers' markets. From either site, the model 0723TG, rated "legal for trade", runs about $215 to $230 with galvanized pan. Shipping is about $8.00. It has temperature-compensated springs, which means your mess of beet greens will weigh as much in June as in October.

Each of these sites also has portable digital scales, and more other types of scales than I knew existed. You can enter "scales" and your favorite brand name into any search engine to find more websites offering scales online.

The Farmers' Market WIC program

The Maine Department of Human Services and the Maine Department of Agriculture cooperate to sponsor the Maine WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program. Using federal funding, these special WIC checks are given to folks who already qualify for the regular WIC checks, which are redemable in stores for specified products. The Farmers' Market WIC Checks will begin to be issued in May this year.

Farmer's Market WIC Checks are spendable only at farmers' markets and farm stands and can be used only for fresh, unprocessed fruits, vegetables and herbs. This year they will be in denominations of $5 and, like a personal check, they get signed by the user when the purchase is made. The farmer then deposits them like a regular check after stamping them with a unique number issued to each farmer by the WIC program.

For all the details of the program, go to www.WICforME.com/farmers.htm or call 800-437-9300 and ask for Dawn Mulcahey. There is now no deadline during the year for joining.

Maine Food Regulations and Permits

A list of Maine statutes relating to selling agricultural products is available at http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/7/title7ch101sec0.html which is at the Maine legislature's website of Maine statutes.

Another site which is somewhat easier to access is the Maine Department of Agriculture's site on Statutes and Rules which has links to the same statutes, but organized a bit differently.

For a list of downloadable permits go to http://www.state.me.us/agriculture/qar/permits.html to find permits in .pdf format.

Version: 12-Dec-07.