Kitchenware Retailers Connect with Local Farmers
By Micah Cheek
Kitchenware retailers have been taking advantage of the continuing popularity of farmer’s markets and Community-Supported Agriculture, changing their stock and adapting cooking classes to accommodate the growing number of consumers looking to the farmer’s market for fresh produce.
While Seattle-based Kitchen- N-Things does not work directly with the nearby Ballard Farmer’s Market, recent changes to the neighborhood have made the retailer a regular stop for the farmer’s market crowd. “This neighborhood is really changing, condos and apartment buildings are being built,” says Buyer and Manager Jeff Eldridge. “With the change in the neighborhood, the people moving here are the more likely to be farmers market shoppers. We are en route between the farmers market and where new buildings are being built.” With Kitchen-N-Things located on an easy path to and from the market, the store can expect to take up to a quarter of its business from farmers market attendees during spring. Kitchen-N-Things has begun to sell more produce focused items in response to the trend, including carriers for food like produce bags and ceramic egg containers. “We sell a lot of mandolins in the summertime. Salad spinners fly out of here in the summer,” Eldridge adds. The response has been strong enough that the retailer uses the farmer’s market as a location to distribute flyers in, courting both the foot traffic and the younger consumers that frequent it. “People are coming in, Sunday is the time to get on the town, I think a lot of browsing is happening as well,” says Eldridge. “The farmers market helps bring a different demographic than you would normally see. We see a younger crowd coming in and shopping, which is nice for us.”
In Des Moines, Iowa, local food systems are always at the top of people’s minds. The Des Moines Farmer’s Market attracts 20,000 visitors a week during summer, and the city also hosts the offices of the World Food Prize, an organization dedicated to rewarding people who increase or improve the world’s food supply. In an environment like this, it is not surprising that the opportunity to work with a Community-Supported Agriculture group found Kitchen Collage, a local kitchenware retailer, and not the other way around. “It was a farmer that walked in and asked if we wanted to be a drop site,” says Teresa Adams-Tomka, Owner of Kitchen Collage. “There was no initiation, it was just a very wonderful human being, and we thought we’d help her out.” After becoming a CSA drop site, Kitchen Collage began holding cooking classes to teach customers how to prepare the seasonally driven products available from farmers. “It’s a tool to teach people that a farm is not a grocery store, what you get that week is what you eat,” says Adams-Tomka. “It’s basically one big box of produce and everybody picks out of the box. It’s used as a teaching tool to help them understand, ‘Well, I’ve got two peppers and four people in my family. How am I going to use those peppers?’”
While Kitchen Collage is no longer a CSA drop site, classes on cooking fresh produce are still held, with ingredients often supplied from the Des Moines Farmer’s Market. Adams-Tomka notes that the focus on local food production has helped make Kitchen Collage a fixture in the local area. “Certainly there’s the idea that there would be interest in a store that is community driven and advocates for community sources,” she says. “You’re engaged in the community, and then customers understand that if they spend their money locally, it stays in the community.”
Cook’s Warehouse in Atlanta has made a point of connecting consumers with area farmers. “When we book a farmer’s market class, they always sell out,” says Founder and CEO Mary Moore. These classes begin with a tour of the nearby Morningside Farmer’s Market, or the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. “Then everyone goes back to the store, then they make a meal with whatever they found at the farmers markets,” Moore adds. Cook’s Warehouse is also the drop site for two CSAs and hosts a class for farmers themselves. “Through my association with Les Dames D’Escoffier, we do a different program with the farmers market. I do classes with the farmers how to demo more effectively,” says Moore. Cook’s Warehouse has also kept a booth at the Morningside Farmer’s Market. Moore has found that her store is becoming a resource for farmer’s market customers looking for ways to prepare new or different varieties of produce they find. “There’s a big craze about kohlrabi. For a lot of people, when you get beyond carrots and broccoli, they just don’t know what to do with it,” says Moore, adding that access to fresh herbs has been an exciting prospect for recent customers. “It’s a way to make your food more flavorful without adding a lot of fat. You’re not cheating so much with that…. The herb stripper was one of our number one items last year. People just love that tool.”
To connect farmers and consumers directly, Cook’s Warehouse has farmers come in to demonstrate how best to use their own produce. “It’s sort of like the farmers market tour, it’s bringing the farmer into the store to be with the students,” says Moore. “Students these days love meeting the farmer just as much as they love meeting the celebrity chefs.”
