Thoughts on the Bluffton Farmers Market

I was trained in politics, and my husband and I set out after college to do our professional peace movement internships with all the best intentions in the world. Unfortunately we had a very difficult lessons to learn in the adult professional scene and we wound up hurt, disillusioned and bitter, knowing there must be a better way to work and live than what we had witnesses. This experience, as well as the work of Wendell Berry and others led us to a kind of “micro-politics,” our only hope in the ever more overwhelming political struggle that now seemed intimately personal.

We didn’t know anymore how to stop global warming, but we knew what we had to do to cut down our own energy consumption. We stopped using a car and started the process of going off the grid in our home.

We didn’t know how to make peace happen, but we knew what we needed to do to build community. We started getting involved in local projects and our church, planning neighborhood potlucks and started working on building a wide friendship network with everyone from Republicans to those society rejected.

We didn’t know how to stop the sweatshops and unfair labor practices and industrial environmental hazards around the world, but we knew that we wanted to buy things that were made by people we knew. My husband started an all-hand-powered woodworking business, and we tried our best to trade with friends for goods and to minimize the products that we bought.

We didn’t know how to stop the strip mall culture, but we knew that if we couldn’t buy it in Bluffton, we didn’t need it.

We couldn’t stop the TV numbness, but we could promote and organize live, meaningful entertainment for all ages.

This is the mindset that the Bluffton Farmers’ Market was born from and into. A farmers market brought together everything we believed in: local production, environmental stewardship, community sharing and spirit, live entertainment and space for dialogue across boundaries. It even promoted our small town business district and helped to keep Saturday mornings lively at the stores on Main Street.

Here are some things I’ve learned from being part of the farmers market
1) I think it is a very important fact to remember that we failed in the first year that we tried to open the market. Not all good things succeed right away.

2) It seems clear that people want to have their own small businesses, and thrive, given the appropriate venue for creative entrepreneurship.

3) Diverse people are the key to strong networks

4) Non-organization can work very well, depending on your expectations and the energy of the group