Farmers’ Market Tips & Tricks
Many of the Portland/Vancouver area farmer’s markets open up soon. Enjoy these tips.
Our local farmer’s market kicks off its season in the beginning of May! Looking for one near you? Go here.
We love wandering through outdoor markets and buying our food directly from the people who grow it. Whether it’s listening to the local bands, watching strangers and bumping into friends, checking out the bins of beautiful produce, or just enjoying the way my husband’s eyes light up when crenshaw melons are in season, I love everything about small, local farmer’s markets. Okay, not everything. Some of those music groups can be pretty awful. Oh, and the whole pushing-a-dog-in-a-stroller phenomenon? I will never understand that.
Many people will argue that farmer’s markets are actually more expensive than grocery stores : “I can buy carrots cheaper at Winco!” While this may be true, it misses the point. At least in my book.
My whole philosophy with living frugally and shopping with coupons is this: it allows me to save money on items that are not as important to me (dish soap, shaving cream, paper towels, band-aids, etc.) so I can spend it on the things that are (organic produce, quality meat & dairy, giving to others, travel, etc.). I love saving money where I can so we can spend it where we want/need.
Like many of you, buying quality meat & produce is becoming a bigger priority to me. Supporting local farmers is also something I am becoming more passionate about. Enter farmer’s markets. What better place to accomplish both?
Here are a few tips/ideas I try to keep in mind when we go to our local farmer’s market:
Walk through the entire market once before making any purchases. For the most part, you will be looking at local, in-season products. Because of this, most of the fruits and vegetables being sold on any given week will be repeated in stall after stall. If you buy the first bunch of spinach or flat of strawberries you come across, you’ll regret it when you turn the corner and see it for a lower price. It’s also a good way to compare the quality of each vendor’s wares to make sure you are getting the freshest, highest quality products out there.
Establish your priorities and spending limit ahead of time. This goes along with the first point. Decide what priorities are important to your family. Quality meat? Produce? Hot donuts? Hand-quilted hot pads? Establish these ahead of time in your budget and spend accordingly.
My priorities are meat, dairy, and produce. If I find beautiful cherries grown by a great farmer that are just slightly more expensive than the local Safeway, I am willing to pay more for them. If I find grass-fed beef in the same price range as the sale going on at New Seasons, I am willing to pay a bit more for it. However, if I’m blowing our grocery budget to do it, I won’t be able to enjoy or sustain it.
Keep in mind current grocery store prices when you wander farmer’s market booths. I used to keep a small notebook in my purse with baseline prices at local grocery stores on products I frequently purchased. It allowed me to know when I was getting a good deal and when I was just getting sucked in by fancy sale signs. Now I keep the prices in my head, but the idea is still the same.
Let’s face it, you can go totally overboard in those booths overflowing with seasonal produce, blowing your entire week’s worth of grocery money on things that will not feed your family for an entire week. Unless you really like chard, you want to keep an eye on your budget.
Talk to the vendors. Some are just teenage kids doing a weekend job, but for the most part the small stands are run by the people who grew or made what they are selling. Start a relationship with the people who grow your food! You’ll quickly develop a short list of favorites. Support the ones with responsible growing practices.
Remember that many farmers use organic farming practices, even if they haven’t paid the big bucks to become technically organic-certified. Ask them about it! Most love an interested audience. Oh, and I’ve found that the more interested I am, the more free samples they want me to try which is a nice little bonus. Except for that goat’s milk soap we left in the stroller for far too long…
Here are a few things I often purchase at our farmer’s market : flower bouquets, honey, melons, vegetable starts, beef, beets, greens, and the occasional piping hot quesadilla.
Enjoy the atmosphere. My husband and I often walk through the market a couple times, enjoying the great community atmosphere without spending a dime. We take in the sights & sounds, let our kids cruise down the wide aisles, smell the flowers, sample the coffee, watch the balloon man, and stop by the library on our way home for a nice, free family outing. Occasionally, there will be a small street parade or special event going on at the same time. Sometimes the best memories together are the simplest ones.
Leave a comment with your farmers market shopping suggestions!
Check out these posts for additional inspiration:
- The Truth About CSA’s
- How to Flash Freeze Berries
- Canning and Preserving Resources
- 35 Ways to use Summer Produce
- 11 Ways to Save Money on Produce
Looking for more ways to find local produce in your area?
Follow Frugal Living NW on Pinterest!
Fantastic range of boards from best recipes and tips for frugal living to gardening and budgeting help.
This post may contain affiliate links. See the disclosure policy for more information.
as a certified organic farmer, i completely disagree with your advice to buy from farmers who just ssy they are organic without getting certified. it’s actually NOT expensive to get certified. in fact, most small farmers qualify for a government reimbursement that covers 100% of the cost.
if a farmer isn’t certified, then chances are that there is a reason why. its very difficult to actually grow organic food. but it’s very easy to just say “pretty much organic” and get all of the credit. please support certified organic farmers!!!
I LOVE this!!! We go to our Farmers Market every Saturday , and we love it! So the boths selling goods don’t change often, but the food sure does! Right now we don’t really have that much of a selection, but I can not wait until I can get everything I need in Veggies for the week:) I actually save money! Some how I can remember prices in my head and I can get what I need from certain booths This is why the walk through is so important to collect all that info. I can not wait to get all the ingredients for what we call a “Super Salad” It has all fresh veggies from the market and it has a little of everything thrown in there. I hope everyone stops and reads this article so they will try there local Farmers Market!
Awesome tip on the deer and elk meat idea! We’re suckers for that.. I’d drive all the way over there for that — that being hard to find on west side, in grocers or f. markets. 😉
My trick is to become semi-loyal to your particular vendors of choice. I have my fruit/orchard guy, and he cuts me a deal on boxes (and boxes!) of peaches, apricots, cherries, apples, pears. Because he knows I’ll come back and won’t stiff him or anything. Last year I also had a tendency to show up the last 15-20 minutes of market and play ‘let’s make a deal’ with the boxes of fruit he didn’t want to haul back to the farm – once a peach is picked, it ain’t going back on the tree. 😉 It evens out when I buy 800+lbs of apples from him though.
Or my tomato lady who gets a kick out of how my kids adore her flock of chickens and little fluffy dog and has given me free pots and discounted plants over the years. 😀 People think I’m goofy, until they see what I score throughout the years.
I will totally be watching for good farm/u-pick suggestions here though – if we actually do move down there, I’m going to have to find myself all new produce hook-ups as I don’t think I can bring mine with me (from northeastern WA and north ID).
First off- CONGRATS on your new son and an extra special Happy Mothers Day to you.
I agree with your comments about farmers markets. Even if I have to pay a bit more, the produce and items found at my farmers markets are fresher and better tasting. They also last longer because they were not picked and then thrown on a semi and hauled to the grocery store, which who knows how long they sat in a semi truck rolling to the store. In the long run, even paying a bit more at the local farmers markets is a better investment for all the reasons I listed above, in my opinion.
We visit the Forest Grove FM on Wednesdays, the Hillsboro FM on Saturdays, and the Orenco FM on Sundays. Not all the same week but those are the ones we go to. I go for perishable fruits – berries and such that just don’t hold long. When Hermiston melons come in we always buy a couple – bought at 8am and they were picked less than 24 hours prior. Often these items in the store just don’t smell or taste the same because they are picked sooner so they can be transported farther. We also buy jerky and cheese as our splurges. I also love the fresh made bouquets 🙂
We take cash and that’s our budget…unless something is spectacular and they take a check or debit card.
i take $20 in cash with me, and no more. $20 is enough to buy a few things (usually produce, sometimes fresh caught fish, polenta, a cookie…), but not go overboard…
i live by the Hillsdale Farmers Market which goes year round-we make it about every other week, so it’s a max of $40 a month. It feels like a nice little indulgence to me the way we do it-it’s more about buying some treats (super delicious peaches, purple cauliflower, mini pies), rather than real grocery shopping…