Tent Talk

This week on Tent Talk, co-hosts Brijet, Catt and Justine catch up on what's been going on in farmers' market communities across the country. From face masks and contingency plans to the nuances of social media messaging for your farmers' market, this episode covers a lot of ground! Listen along for tips and tricks from your farmers' market pros.

Listen along to this week's episode of Tent Talk for an in-depth conversation between co-host Catt and Erin Tormey, farmer and director of Coastside Farmers Markets, recorded at the California Small Farms Conference back in February. They chat about creative ways to pull in farmers' market sponsorships and the reciprocal benefits of community-supported markets.

On this week's episode, Tent Talk co-hosts have an important conversation about the civil unrest taking place in many parts of the country and what that means for farmers markets.

"Farmers market people are people who do things. Let's band together. Let's work for change." - Catt Fields White, founder of Farmers Market Pros

Black Lives Matter.

This week on Tent Talk, we're replaying our inspirational 2019 interview with Eric Dobbs of Seven Seas Roasting Company. Eric's passion for coffee led him from the military and law school to Vendor-101 and the farmers market where he launched his coffee roasting business. A few years later, Seven Seas is still in farmers markets even now that they have 2 successful brick and mortar coffee shops.

As areas begin to reopen and loosen restrictions surrounding COVID-19, many farmers' markets are reopening for the summer season. This week on Tent Talk, co-hosts Brijet, Catt and Justine discuss how reopening cities, businesses and public spaces may impact farmers' market operations.

This week on Tent Talk, co-hosts Brijet, Catt and Justine look on the bright side and discuss the silver linings they've discovered in spite of the many changes farmers markets have faced in the last few months. Listen along for a sliver of optimism!

On this week's episode of Tent Talk, we hear from Daniel and Kasi Haire of the Nolensville Farmers' Market in Nolensville, Tennessee about how they implemented a drive-through format to adjust to new farmers market health and safety guidelines.

On this week's episode of Tent Talk, co-hosts Brijet, Catt and Justine catch up with with Maya Madsen of Maya's Cookies. They discuss how farmers market food makers are coping with stay-at-home orders, farmers market restrictions, and pivoting to online sales. Listen along for tips from Maya on how her business is surviving and thriving amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

We're still talking about the current public health emergency since, like everyone else, farmers, food makers, and farmers market managers are still operating under conditions that change daily. On this week's episode, we chat with Christine Farren, Executive Director of CUESA, about how to cover operations costs when your farmers market has been modified to operate under current public safety guidelines. Listen along for creative ideas on new revenue streams, fundraising, and utilizing volunteers.

Stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders are still impacting the lives of farmers market managers, small farmers, food makers, and…everybody in the whole world. On this week's episode Catt, Brijet and Justine discuss some of the nuts and bolts of dealing with reformatted farmers markets as we enter the frayed nerves stage of COVID-19.