Before It Was Cool--Toledo Farmers' Market

Main corridor at the
Toledo Farmers' Market

Farmers' markets have firmly established themselves as the new fad in urban centers across the United States.  And I know to stay away from fads, having seen the effects of the Atkins diet, colonics and Cavariccis.

Back in New York, it always seemed to me that half the people at a farmer's market only went because attendance there is an essential accessory to the hip persona.  And it's amazing how a vendor can charge so much more for a bunch of carrots when it's sold as an accessory rather than as food.  These factors usually kept me away.  But sometimes if the sun was shining during my walk back from the coffee shop, I would stop by the market and browse the produce, all the while feeling a bit like a phony and a fool.   So when my wife first made enthusiastic mention of a farmer's market in Toledo I struggled to match her enthusiasm.

However, when we did eventually find our way there, I got the sense that people in Toledo had been coming to the farmers' market long before it was cool (later that day, internet research revealed that the market had been in existence since 1832).  I did not see a single pair of skinny jeans, and anybody wearing a mesh baseball cap was doing so in earnest.  The food, free of a fashion surcharge, was priced at or below the prices in the local grocery stores, which was amazing given the variety and quality of the produce for sale.

And so I consider Toledo Farmers' Market to be another important addition to the list of reasons to live in this city.  http://www.toledofarmersmarket.com/market-history