Released: February 14, 2005

Kansas Farmers’ Market Workshop to Aid Consumer-Produce Connection

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The fourth annual Farmers’ Market Workshop will be March 19 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Lawrence, Kan. The free workshop is offering two tracks of practical information for market organizers, market gardeners and others interested in this rapidly growing approach for connecting consumers to farm-fresh produce.

The workshop’s co-sponsors are Kansas State University’s Research and Extension horticulture programs, the Kansas Department of Commerce, the Kansas Rural Center, and the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops.

A key speaker will be Jeff Cole, director of the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers’ Markets, which includes more than 40 farmers’ markets. He will address such topics as market management, balance for the vendors-customers mix, market promotion, and conflict management.

The variety of session leaders will also include:

* Katherine Kelly and Joan Vibert, growers who helped organize the Farmers’ Community Market at Brookside in Kansas City. They’ll help growers consider how to price products and direct vendors in thinking about display set-ups that “sell.”

* Tamara Tiemann, Kansas Department on Aging, who will discuss how the Kansas Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition program can provide fresh produce to seniors and added sales for farmers.

* Two Kansas Department of Agriculture leaders – Evan Sumner, Food Safety Program manager, and Adam Inman, retail food technical specialist – addressing market practices that ensure food safety.

The workshop schedule runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Buildings 1 and 2 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Participants will lunch on their own, but those who bring sack lunches can network on-site with others who also are engaged in farmers’ marketing.

To get more information or to register for the workshop, interested persons can contact Jerry Jost at 785-766-0428 (jjost@myvine.com).

Underwriting for the workshop is coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Kathleen Ward
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News