Farmer's Market Opens on Campus

By Broadside Staff Writer Matt Loffman

George Mason University held its very first farmers’ market on campus at North Plaza on Wednesday. The market’s grand opening coincided with other Earth Day activities, including a campus cleanup and an environmental expo.

Vendors sold homegrown and fresh products ranging from bread and baked goods to fresh milk and eggs.

The farmers’ market was sponsored by University Services and is part of northern Virginia’s Smart Markets, which was founded by Jean Janssen in 2008 to help struggling vendors make more money at each market and spend more time at home. Smart Markets operates several local farmers’ markets that provide producer-only products.

For its grand opening at Mason, Janssen was pleased with the turnout, but hopes the event will grow in the future. Janssen is looking for more vendors as well.

“I am hoping to reach out to our diverse population to locate home cooks to start cooking or baking their specialties for the market,” Janssen said.

Two of the vendors at the market are Mason graduates, who now travel to four markets a week selling their specialty soups and baked goods. They use local ingredients when they cook out of their kitchen in Front Royal.

“Everyone’s been very receptive. Even people who don’t want to buy anything, they’ve come over to see what’s what,” said Susan Rhood, one of the operators of Heirloom Kitchen and vendor at the Mason market.

Most of the vendors could tell the shoppers exactly where their ingredients were grown and how the food was grown.

Many students and faculty members stopped by the inaugural event for lunch.

“I had class and came outside. It smelled good and I was hungry,” said sophomore government and international politics major Dominic Pody, as he ate a bratwurst sandwich from one vendor. “It’s food you can’t really buy in the JC."

Other students were excited that Mason now offers a farmers’ market but only browsed the vendors the first week because they had not heard of the event in advance.

“I thought it was going to be bigger, but it was still quaint,” said freshman administration of justice major Erin Hoehl. “It’s just fun to have something different to do on campus.”

There were less people at the market than sophomore integrative studies major Gladys Abreu expected to see. She said she thought the rain was likely to blame.
Organizers said they hope that future weeks at the farmers’ market will be more successful when the growing season advances and locally grown produce can also be sold. The hope is that participation continues throughout the summer when most students are no longer on campus.

“We really do have to guilt these students into shopping with us throughout the summer when at all feasible,” Janssen said. “It does not take huge numbers to make a good market for the vendors—10 percent of your student and faculty population shopping every week would make this market by far the busiest in the county.”

The market will be on campus every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. until October.