Is that Farmer Really Selling Local Food?

The farmers in North Florida can not grow plums, apples, and apricots. It is too hot to grow them.
If I see those fruits on my local farmers market, I would know they are either imported or grown on the West Coast.

My farmers market is a producers only market. Everything in it has to be grown or made by the seller somewhere in my state. But even there I have to be careful. The first strawberries of the year sold here were started in Canada and finished here. Not exactly local.

Is there evidence on the other plums that the stickers were removed? Having put produce away for 2 different jobs, I can tell you that sometimes a box of fruit comes with a sheet of stickers not already applied. At my current job we don't put the stickers on (it's 100% Organic, why tarnish that with sticker glue?). Maybe the farmer's kid or worker started putting the sticker's on, and the farmer said "stop wasting time," or something like that.

You're absolutely right: you should have asked. Is it normal to find plums grown in Ontario right now? I don't know. But I would say he carries the non-local stuff for the same reason Whole Foods carries conventional produce: customers don't keep coming back if they can't keep buying the same thing. I'm not saying it's true, I'm saying that's Whole Foods' argument. I know: I worked there, and asked.

That's the problem with people who never get out to the countryside. They are so ignorant that they don't know what is produced in their area, or what month produce ripens.

Up here in Alberta we have roadside stands promoting B.C. fruit, in May, when even plums aren't ready until mid august.

And the prices are usually higher than the supermarket.

my dad is the general manager of a large grocery store in Alberta. he told me that some of the fruit he gets at his store comes in the same boxes as the stuff at those fruit stands. when he told me that this spring, it made me wonder if those BC cherries really are any different from the ones I get at the store.

I'm a farmer who operates an honor system roadside stand and sold at farmers' markets for 13 years. Rules for consumers. Don't believe everything "farmers" tell you. Don't ask questions like "do you spray". In 13 years at the farmers' market, I've never heard a farmer answer yes to this question. Instead, ask, "your peaches look so perfect, how do you keep the bugs off." "How do you keep the weeds out of your field?" Rule #2--how to tell the real farmers from the produce buyers who pretend to be farmers. Look at their hands. A farmers' hand are rough and stained with soil. In the middle of the summer it doesn't matter how many times you wash your hands and use a nail brush, there's still dirt in the cracks. Rule #3--ask to visit farms you buy from. At our roadside stand customers see us out in the field everyday working and picking. They see us bringing the produce to the stand from the field. They are free to walk around our farm. Rule #4--produce comes in different sizes and shapes. If all the tomatoes, peaches etc. are exactly the same size (especially extra large or small) they are probably purchased from a packing shed. Grocery stores like one size, the small ones and large ones are sold at packing sheds for next to nothing and often taken to farmers markets and sold at a premium. Also look for things like doubles, two cherries or kiwis stuck together. If all of them look like that you can bet they are from a packing shed.

Thank you to that farmer. That was very helpful. One thing I'm a little frustrated with is folks who aren't certified saying, "We're organic, we're just not certified."

JoshA that shouldn't entirely miff you.. getting organic certification is tricky and in most cases counter intuitive to the reasons behind growing organic products.

For example, a Canadian farmer can produce meat and veg 'oganically' but feed their animals non-organic food. Superfically, yes, this is a problem but how does this change when it turns out that in order to get certified 'organic' feed it has to be shipped from California? What is more important? Organic 'as possible' or organic period? It seems to me that trucking feed across the continent just to meet organic certification standards is a farce.

Plums with this same label are now for sale at Whole Foods in Denver. The sign said organic. When I got home I looked for the word 'organic' on the label. The word organic is missing. I have to assume I have been misled. This is a mistake I will not make again. Thank you for posting your photo and comment. The facts suggest someone is really stretching the rules with these plums. I would like to talk to the farmer.

i know this is way too late for you to benefit, but to the Whole Foods comment I would say that the organic and conventional signs get switched sometimes because of ignorant employees, or someone new putting the wrong produce in the wrong place. The way you can always know if something is certified organic is if the produce number has a 94 at the beginning. All the organic produce at Whole Foods has a 94 at the beginning of the number, so the number is usually 94-xxxx or 94xxxx. Also, re the post, based on what you wrote, their signs didn't say local plums, only local blueberries and corn. I feel it is unfair to accuse them of being shysters when they obviously were just filling out their selection. Personally, I hate it when sellers put the stickers on the plums, because when you take them off they pull off the skin so you can't pull them off until you're going to eat them which means you have to look at a bowl of stickered plums on your table until they get ripe. Much prettier without the stickers!