Farmers Markets: Have I found the origin story in Alemany?

As I spend the winter gathering market histories (feel free to add yours here), reading books from other movements that are similar in scope and timeline as the farmers market one, scribble pieces of random data and dates that I find online or in archives, listen to system leaders describe how eras are formed rather than just random good ideas that don’t become widely accepted, (get ready to hear a lot about Alinsky and Wheatley and Solnit among others), and generally just following any thread that leads to a better understanding of the development of the farmers market movement since 1970, I occasionally find something that lights a path to follow.

Legendary chef Deborah Madison’s 2002 book “Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers Markets” is one such light. She begins with her own history which includes moving to a town (Santa Fe) partly because it had a market already (!) and then becoming its manager immediately after arriving. She writes about her connection to farmers markets:

“The farmers' market movement was in its toddler stage at this point. There were about three thousand markets across the country, and I started wondering about the existence of these volunteer, more or less pop-up markets that unfolded every weekend around the United States. I began to tie my cooking classes out of town to market visits, from Portland to Kansas City, Phoenix to Cleveland, New York both upstate and in the city.”

Her description of a dozen or so markets in the book is so gorgeous and in line with my concept of markets using intentional design to meet the local context, that I realize how much I have been influenced by her already in developing it. It also occurred to me that her experience as the market manager was so similar to mine even though we did them in very different places and times that I can see the outline of the movement in those shared ideas.

But even more helpful than her own experience and descriptions is this nugget:

“The Alemany Farmers’ Market was founded in San Francisco on August 12, 1943. It was the first farmers’ market in California. The Victory Garden Council and regional farmers initially established a farmers’ market at Duboce Avenue and Market Street as a wartime measure to provide an outlet for surplus and distressed crops from neighboring counties. In 1943 it was illegal for farmers to sell directly to the public. The Victory Garden Council, led by John Brucato was able to circumvent this initial red tape with a loophole that allowed farmers to sell on an unused city lot as long as they sold from the back of a farmer-owned truck.” (Emphasis added)

In 20 years of developing this concept of mine, doing analysis for hundreds of markets, visiting over a thousand markets, this is the first I have heard of this market as being an intentional open-air market for the same reasons as those who came much later. (To be clear, Ive heard of this market, but hadn’t heard it used as one of the first of what has come since: an intentionally open-air farmers market, focused on family table shoppers and farmers selling directly.

I re-read that paragraph a few times, jotted it down, and of course immediately ran to the internet.

Nothing I found there disputes her analysis of this being the godmother of open-air markets. But no one else cites it either.

When I ask my California peers about it, they seem confused and slightly taken aback to be asked to explain this citation. No one corrects her, but no one adds any information. Often they talk about it being “old” and even dispute its history as direct-to-consumer even though it is listed as a certified farmers market to this day which comes with specific rules as to who can use that term.

What is interesting is that this is already a typical scenario in my work to define and share the modern era: assumptions that the history must be written down somewhere, citations that suggest Southern CA’s faith-based markets, or NYC’s Greenmarket or Madison WI were first (and in some ways, they were first which is part of the fun), shed markets or groceries (and their histories) masquerading as farmers markets, or decent arguments about how “new” this era really is, since the development of markets is one major way that permanent site human inhabitation is defined.

And that may be the most crucial reason to do this: to have a national conversation about this fantastic mechanism used in thousands of local places to keep culture and connections regularly happening without a lot of pomp or infrastructure necessary. And not just to have that conversation between academics, or among market managers, but with everyone interested in them for all of the reasons possible.

What I keep realizing is the 10,000 or so market sites likely in the US will have their own version of this nugget, which forces me to seek out as many of them as I can to inspect them for authenticity, significance, and a good story so I can fight for those I keep.

I’m still sifting through all of the data from the brilliant and thorough Deborah Madison, but thanks to her, more is known.