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Stunned

Posted at 3:04 PM on September 30, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (5 Comments)

Have you ever been so shocked that it made it difficult to return to the task at hand? That is what happened to us this weekend. We went shopping, doing our normal rounds before heading out to the baseball game and I froze. Brendan was getting a cart while I approached our normal farm outlet (Farm in the Market). Everything was gone. I mean EVERYTHING. There was a sign about a temporary closing or something. I couldn't read it. I was stuck. Suddenly our locavore world was spinning into a tailspin.

Now I know I can get the majority of the products elsewhere, but I had just finished explaining to someone how Brendan and I got to be the lazy locavores. You can hear others on this site talk about starting their own farmers market or the ponds they stock or even getting a mayoral proclamation to support their locavore lifestyle. Not me. We go shopping and for the most part, in the summer, if you have the money, you can get it locally.

With this location closed (for what sounds like forever) I will have to dramatically change my shopping habits. We will either have to go to two locations, which means taking babies in and out of the car seats multiple times (argh!) or stop shopping at our produce vendor also. Neither prospect seems to be a great one. Because skipping eggs or milk for a week isn't an option with my family, we headed over to the co-op. What would have cost us about $19.00 at Farm in the Market ended up to be a $78 co-op trip.

This is no good. No good at all. Just when I was starting to embrace the name "Lazy Locavore."

Comments (5)

Wow, bummer. It sounds like there wasn't enough demand? I'm so surprised. I would have thought MSP could support something like that. All the farmers' markets around here are booming. I was even at one yesterday that just started up this year and they had a lot of customers waiting for them while they set up.

Posted by valereee | October 1, 2008 2:34 AM

It could be exactly because this is farmers market season and people are getting their food at a farmers market instead of this permanent operation set up in an indoor market location. At this site you could find local meats, cheeses, honey, eggs, and dairy. This is how we could still feel good about the project in December! Oh well.

Posted by Sareen | October 1, 2008 7:42 AM

Any chance of finding someone associated with the market to ask what happened? I'm very interested in the economic impact of seasonal markets on year-round resources.

Posted by Cher | October 4, 2008 3:53 PM

I guess I am part of the problem like Sareen states. I only shop at MGM in the winter. I am going to miss Farm in the Market but maybe someone else will move in. The egg and meat vendors at the outdoor midtown market had a very good summer so maybe they will be interested in coming in monthly or something to sell indoors over the winter.

Mpls does have enough demand to support something like this but Chicago and Lake is not the neighborhood that the demand is in. Also I bet all of the 35W, Lyndale, Nicollet, Lake St, construction did not help the summer traffic either.

Posted by Mimi | October 8, 2008 8:19 AM

I hear now that it has something to do with a disagreement with the management at the market. Apparently they were doing smashing business and the issue was more with how the market was managed and marketed. This isn't from Lori herself, but from someone who said they talked to her. Every other business within the market has been pretty mum about why, but will say to talk to her at the St. Paul farmers market.

On the good (?) side is that they are deciding between four other similar vendors and hope to have someone in before people start to trick-or-treat.

Posted by Sareen | October 8, 2008 8:32 AM