French breakfast radishes, Hakurei turnips and Swiss chard are for sale at the Andrews Farm display in the Augusta Farmers Market at Mill Park on a Tuesday afternoon in early May. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Rain patters on the pavilion at Mill Park on a Tuesday in early May.

It’s nearly the end of the day for the Augusta Farmers Market, but the energy is high. Kids stomp around in muddy yellow boots, vendors chat with each other and somewhere, a family is boiling fiddleheads for the first time.

Farmers market season takes root in May with the promise of sweet vegetables and sunny days ahead. Vendors change, products trend in and out and markets shift locations, but the interest in buying local remains strong each summer in Maine.

This summer, after some uncertainty, the Yarmouth Farmers Market is back — right in front of town hall. Fiddleheads are available for a short stint in Augusta, and farms are extending their growing seasons. On top of the usual ebbs and flows, recent warehouse E. coli outbreaks and Avian flu-related egg shortages mean more Mainers want to know where their food is coming from.

Mike Perisho, farmer at Andrews Farm in Gardiner and a vendor at the Augusta market, said Mainers are especially tuned into growing season.

“In Maine, people aren’t that removed from having a big family garden or growing up on a farm themselves,” Perisho said. “And so they know when to look for in-season vegetables. We can surprise them with early tomatoes, but they know already when rhubarb is coming, beet greens, asparagus, peas, stuff like that. It’s a good thing, because people are on the lookout.”

THE GOODS

Caitlin Jordan, owner of Alewive’s Brook Farm, brings vegetables, fruits, baked goods and seafood to markets in Portland, South Portland, Saco, Scarborough and Yarmouth.

She said she is planning to increase this summer’s stock of value-added products like apple-cinnamon muffins, zucchini bread and carrot cake — all made from crops grown on the farm in Cape Elizabeth.

Caitlin Jordan, pictured in 2022 irrigating her family farm in Cape Elizabeth. Now the chairperson of the Portland Farmers’ Market, Jordan says she plans to increase the farm’s value-added products, such as baked goods and soup. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

“I mean, I know everybody loves vegetables and whatnot, but people have less time on their hands,” Jordan said. “So us being able to create some of those favorites that people don’t necessarily have the time to do themselves — you might not want to make an entire carrot cake yourself, but being able to buy a piece of carrot cake right from the farm is fun.”

Jordan took over the farm from her father in 2023. The change has allowed her to experiment with different varieties of crops and find creative ways to package farm products.

“We’ve been making stuff for years, but really trying to come up with new and fun things each week,” Jordan said. “We’re talking about making different kinds of soups, like, we raised turkeys so we could make a turkey soup, or just so simple as to make a vegetable soup later, once we have more veggies available. Just stuff like that, getting more creative beyond just the farm fields.”

Other farmers are also experimenting with their products. Perisho said this year will be the first time Andrews Farm can offer cucumbers and tomatoes when demand is high.

“Once the weather really gets nice, people start asking for tomatoes, and in the past we wouldn’t be able to supply those until late July or August, and now we can have them by middle of June — cherry tomatoes at least,” Perisho said. “We’ve added heaters to some of our formerly unheated greenhouses, and we turn up the thermostat in April, plant about a month earlier than you could otherwise.”

Then there are the crops with a season as short as it is sweet — to some. A wild fern that unfurls each spring, its taste like a cross of broccoli, asparagus and green beans, fiddleheads are a nutrient-rich, spring delicacy in Maine. They’re also an acquired taste, said Lee Brown, who forages fiddleheads and sells them at the Augusta Farmers Market as an independent vendor.

Fiddleheads are a sure sign of spring in New England. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Brown — better known as “the mushroom man” because of the wild mushrooms he sells the rest of the year — said people also recognize him from his nine years of selling fiddleheads at the market and wheeling them around near Shaw’s and other spots in Augusta.

“People look for me this time of year,” he said.

In a matter of weeks, fiddleheads will be out of the season and all eyes will be on tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, corn and summer fruits. Vendors must plan far ahead to meet seasonal demands, but Perisho said new growing techniques provide some flexibility.

“We just have the ability in Maine, with some modern growing techniques, to grow fresh food 12 months out of the year,” Perisho said. “And I think that’s the future. It’s better for you. It’s better for the economy. I can keep staff on year round. So that’s where we’re headed, at least.”

EXTENDING THE SEASON

Andrews Farm has produced lettuce 52 weeks a year for the last three years, but other products will be available earlier than ever, Perisho said, sold at markets and at their new farm stand Wednesdays through Saturdays in Gardiner.

“Our game plan is just to have popular things early,” Perisho said. “It seems like there’s always that early enthusiasm about produce, but if you don’t have season extension, you’re really limited to salad greens until almost July. So trying to have some of those popular summer crops early has been well received by our customers, for sure.”

Customers are increasingly choosing farmers markets over supermarkets, according to Jordan, who said she sees new and old faces shopping each week.

“You have the people that come every week and you get to meet them and get to know them as as regulars, and then it’s always uplifting to see the new faces that come out, week after week,” Jordan said, “and see that more and more people are becoming more aware and more interested in where their food is coming from.”

Sean Mulkern restocks the display at the Wild Fruitings booth in the Augusta Farmers Market under the gazebo at Mill Park. High season approaches for Maine farmers markets. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

For many customers, buying local is not just a matter of sustainability and support for Maine’s economy, but health, said Nathan Swett of Ash Hill View Deer Farm in Carmel. Swett sells venison and related products at the Downtown Waterville Farmers’ Market and also frequents markets in Orono, Hampden and Bangor.

“Just knowing the farmers that are producing it and what’s being put on the crops seems to be a lot more important to people,” Swett said. “They want to know where their food is coming from and how it’s processed. Because people are getting tired of all the pesticides and everything else that’s being put on foods, the growth hormones and all these other things that we keep learning more and more about that shouldn’t have been in our food to begin with.”

Peggy Totapley, clerk at the Augusta Farmers Market, hands out vouchers for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a state program offered at many farmers markets that allows customers to buy crops and food with vouchers. Augusta’s program means a lot to people who need extra help to afford groceries, she said.

From greeting vendors at the beginning of the day, handing out vouchers and watching crops cycle through the season, Totapley said working at the farmers market feels meaningful.

“I like the people and I like the customers,” she said. “I’ve worked at other shop sort of situations, and I prefer this. The farmers market seems more meaningful to me, more basic. We are very lucky to have this roof. It’s a nice place. You can see the birds.”

Under that roof and many like it, vendors spend several days of each week together as they hop from market to market. Perisho said he took a break from in-person markets last year but found he missed the community.

“I actually was hiring out our farmers market staffing this last year, but I really missed it,” Perisho said. “It’s really cool to have that face-to-face interaction and get off the farm. We’re a really tight-knit vendor group. Most of these vendors have been selling at this market for at least five years, if not ten. It’s a cool community gathering, once a week.”

Jordan’s father sold products at Maine farmers markets for 20 years. She said the community has been invaluable — especially as she continues his legacy.

“He’s not able to go to the markets anymore. And people ask, every week, how he’s doing,” Jordan said. “They genuinely care. Like I said, you become a family.”

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