A Market for Backyard Produce Growers

As the Great Recession drags on, people are beginning to change their habits. Instead of paying for gas, many people using their bikes to get around. In San Francisco, for instance, bike ridership is up 53% when compared to 2006. People want to save money on their trips to the grocery store, too, and home vegetable gardening rates increasing steadily.

I have found the increased interest in vegetable gardening true anecdotally in my own life. My wife and I entered a lottery to get a community garden plot because demand far outstripped the supply of gardens. We ended up with a plot, but one they split in half to accommodate more gardeners. For a mere $30, we get 300 square feet of garden space to grow tomatoes, beans, peas, potatoes, squash, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, peppers, and pumpkins. I don’t doubt that we will find a way to use most of the produce we grow, either by eating it fresh or canning it, but inevitably there will be periods of time when we simply have too much of one veggie. We will give some of it away, but the rest may go unpicked or end up in our compost bin.

In these difficult economic times, it doesn’t make much sense for anything to go to waste, not even a few tomatoes and beans. Those excess veggies are even more valuable when you consider that they were probably gardened without spray pesticides and didn’t come from a farm in Chile. But right now, there are no good places for gardeners to easily sell or donate excess produce. A single gardener can’t have a stand at the local farmers market. Posting about your vegetables on Craigslist is time-consuming and possibly sketchy (depending on the buyer). What we need is a market for the individual grower.

This new produce market will serve as an intermediary between people bringing produce to sell and people looking to buy fresh, local produce. For the grower, the market will serve as a place they can always go to and expect to get a fair price for the produce they bring in. For the consumers, it is a place they can always find seasonal produce at prices in the range of organic produce they buy at the grocery store or farmers market.

This market should be a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to supporting local growers. This doesn’t mean, however, that the market shouldn’t charge a small service fee every time someone sells their vegetables. This income will ensure that the market can stay open and continue to provide programs and services for local gardeners. The market will also reserve the right to change the price they pay for different types of vegetables on a daily basis. If it’s early August and everyone’s bringing in excess tomatoes, and there aren’t enough consumers to buy them all, the market can offer growers a lower price and lower the price of tomatoes for consumers, too. This way the market doesn’t buy produce it can’t sell.

I haven’t heard of any backyard produce market before, but if anyone has, please leave me a comment. I think this sort of market could go a long way toward supporting individual growers and taking advantage of the untapped potential of urban yards.

Photo via Laura K. Gibb.