Ypsilanti to offer three weekly farmers markets this year, with focus on local vendors

The Depot Town market is one of two farmers' markets in Ypsilanti, and a third is planned to open in June.

Strassel, an Ypsilanti resident, said one of his main motivations for doing business there was to support the local vendors.

“It’s small but it has a lot of nice goods,” he said. “I make a point to come because it won’t grow if you don’t do business here. Anything you can buy at Meijer that you can buy here instead supports" local vendors.

According to Ypsilanti historian James Mann, a farmers' market was first established in 1919 in the city, and one has operated almost continuously at various locations since.

So why are the markets such important fixtures in a relatively small city like Ypsilanti?

Kate Weise, director of the Depot Town Farmer’s Market nonprofit group, offered an explanation echoed by other shoppers and vendors.

“Ypsilanti is a food desert,” she said.

Aside from the Ypsilanti Food Co-op, there simply aren’t many options for buying fresh food in the city. There is a Kroger south of Ypsilanti on Whittaker Road and several large grocery stores west of the city in Ypsilanti Township, but the farmers' markets are the only venues that offer locally grown fresh food and support the Michigan economy, Weise said.

“We have no grocery stores and people want to get outside and be a part of their community, get to know their neighbors and their farmers and actually talk to people who are growing their food,” she said. “You don’t have that customer service at a big grocery store.”

And, she theorized, unlike other communities, Ypsilanti’s residents are more “salt of the earth” people dedicated to supporting their community’s efforts.

The Depot Town Farmers' Market operates Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and averaged 15 vendors weekly last year, though Weise said she hopes to boost that number to 20 to 25 this season. Depending on the month, different vendors offer different foods and goods, including everything from baked goods to plants to quilts to produce.

Weise said she also hopes start a monthly newsletter, bring back live music and develop partnerships among Depot Town and downtown businesses and the market.

She will also have her own table on the second Saturday of each month for her kid-friendly project, Second Thoughts. With the help of Dreamland Theater, Weise will take discarded materials from Maggie’s Organics, make puppets out of the materials with kids, and put on puppet shows.

On Tuesdays, the Growing Hope-run Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers' Market is open from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Ferris Street between South Adams and South Hamilton streets. It is the larger of the two markets, with over 30 vendors in the season’s peak and between 600 to 800 people weekly.

Both markets accept EBT cards and the Downtown Market offers “bonus bucks”, which give EBT users up to $10 in matching EBT dollars to spend on food.

The Downtown Market also participates in the WIC Project FRESH and Senior Project FRESH, as well as the Washtenaw County Public Health Department’s Prescription for Health Program. Those programs provide coupons to low-income families and seniors to buy fresh Michigan-grown produce at farmers markets.

Downtown Farmer’s Market manager Christine Easley is in her first year and highlighted several changes and new ideas implemented for 2011. She said the market’s focus will remain on providing the community access to healthy food, but organizers are also trying to make it more attractive to families by providing live music and a clown who will do face painting, for example.

Starting in June, a nutritionist will be on site to provide information about the produce and to hand out recipes for cooking foods and vegetables that might be unfamiliar to shoppers. Food Gatherers will also be at the market weekly to help sign people up for EBT cards.

Once a month, Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital will help focus on the health of particular demographic. For example, there will be a senior health day or a children’s day near the start of the school year at which kids could get immunized.

Many vendors set up tables in Depot Town as well as downtown. While some residents say they go to both markets, vendors say the downtown market is more accessible to residents at a nearby senior center and residents on Ypsilanti’s south side and gets different residents out.

Maggie Minor and Priscilla Williams are a mother-daughter team from Ypsilanti who run Maggie’s Baked Goods and More, and sell at both markets. Minor said there aren’t many places to get fresh-baked pound cake, carrot cake, navy bean pie or the other baked goods she offers in Ypsilanti, so their business does well at both locations.

Erik and Amalia Ambessa work at Belleville’s Green Diva Farms, which also has a table at both markets.

Like others, they said there are numerous advantages to buying food from Ypsilanti’s markets.

“You support local people, the local economy, and the food is fresh and from close to where it was grown,” Erik Ambessa said. “People can have a direct relationship with the person who grew the food — they can come here and actually talk to us.”

One of Growing Hope’s core missions is to provide greater access to healthy food, and Amalia Ambessa said bringing fresh, organic food to more tables is what their farm does. Because food begins to lose its nutrition as soon as it’s picked, she said, locally grown food is naturally healthier.

“If you can eat it soon after it’s harvested, then you get more nutrition, you get fed more, you feel more filled up, and you have a healthier body,” she said.

In addition to the Tuesday and Saturday markets, Sam Parise, who runs the 120-acre Fairview Farms and sells honey and other food at the markets, said he is planning to start another market on Fridays outside the Ypsilanti Senior Citizens' Center at 1015 N. Congress Street.

That market is scheduled to open June 3 and run from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.