Visit SLO Veg at Your Local Farmers’ Markets

If you follow us on social media, you may have already heard about this week’s exciting announcement! Starting this Wednesday, April 14th, you’ll be able to come out and meet our team at the Pismo Beach Farmers’ Market! Our little stand will be equipped with produce boxes for scheduled pick-up or to buy on the spot. We are so pleased and excited for this opportunity to meet you all! Our team is absolutely delighted to be doing what we love, with the best customers, in the most beautiful place! We’ll be set up from 4pm to 7pm every Wednesday, can’t wait to see you there.

This past weekend, our team took a little field trip to the SLO Farmers Market and got so much inspiration for future Marketplace Items, Harvest Box Offerings, and recipe ideas. Stay tuned for our upcoming announcements via social media or our weekly newsletter, we’ve got some exciting things underway!

Our Marketing Director, Ray, picked up some dried fruits to make homemade granola to top off her smoothie bowls made with SLO Veg produce. Our writer, Meredith (me!) stocked up on some strawberries to make a fruit salad with her plethora of SLO Veg citrus. And our CEO, Rachael, purchased some fresh focaccia as a perfect medium for serving our pasture-raised eggs.

We’ve already talked a lot about the environmental and communal benefits of shopping locally, but what we haven’t addressed is the historic origin of Farmers’ Markets and why we’re so lucky to have such a high level of access to fresh food here in the Central Coast.

Farmers’ Markets: A History

The first known Farmers’ Markets date back 5,000 years ago in Egypt. Farmers would set up stands along the Nile River to sell their crops to neighboring communities. The first Farmers Markets that reached America appeared in Boston during the 1600’s, although as humans developed more advanced forms of transportation and refrigeration, Farmers Markets died out in popularity and Grocery Stores soon dominated the food market. By 1948, there were but only six Farmers Markets operating in the state of California.

A lot happened to American food culture in the early to mid 1900’s, as you can imagine, The Great Depression didn’t allow for much selectivity when it came to being health conscious. During this time, America was also making huge strides in industrializing the food industry with the first Fast Food Restaurants taking shape in the early twenties as well as products like Kool-Aid, Velveeta Cheese, and Wonder Bread hitting the shelves of local convenience stores. It wasn’t until the 60’s and 70’s when there was enough evidence that this industrialization had some severe effects on human health. This realization pushed American consumers to become more health conscious, turning our attention back to local farms to feed our families. It wasn’t until the late 90s and early 2000s when Farmers Markets boomed due to consumer interest and demand. Now, America has over 12,000 Community Supported Agriculture programs and 2,600 operating Farmers Markets with about 700 located in California.

Learning more about the history of Farmers Markets makes us feel all the more fortunate to have access to such bountiful supplies of fresh produce all year long. The Central Coast is a magical place and we’re so grateful for all of our farmers and suppliers; they do incredible work and after eleven years in business, they’ve become our second family. As mentioned, we are absolutely ecstatic to spend Wednesday evenings with our farmer friends, and further welcome you all into our SLO Veg family!