Top 10 Farmers Markets In The US (SLIDESHOW, VOTE)

While July may bring sweltering heat, here at HuffPost Green, our favorite summer treats are the bountiful farmers markets that get people out of the A/C and into the sunshine to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Not only are farmers markets just plain delicious, their impact on physical, environmental, and community health is worth celebrating.

We've put together a top ten list of the best farmers markets in the country -- but we know this is far from an exhaustive list of the amazing markets that are happening nationwide. That's why we want YOU to send in your pictures of your favorite local farmers market. Please Include your name, location and one detail about your pick to huffpostgreen [at] huffingtonpost [dot] com.

In addition to dishing the dirt on farmers markets, The Huffington Post and The Gotham Gazette are doing a food mapping project to research New Yorkers' access to fresh fruits and vegetables. If you live in NYC, send your observations to this fantastic effort.

Also, if you can't get enough of farmers market voting from this slideshow, check out this great summer-long contest of farmers markets, where the winner will receive $5,000.

And now, for the pictures. Don't forget to send us yours!

Portland Farmers Market, Portland, OR

Each week, 22,000 shoppers visit the 250 vendors from local farms, bakeries, dairy farms, nurseries and fisheries.

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Comments

[YourEG]

01:58 AM on 07/30/2009

Yikes!

The House today voted on #HR 2749.
Hardly anyone had time to read the bill before they voted.
It did not pass today. It will likely pass tomorrow.
This bill is going way too fast for something as important as
food safety.

Please go listen to REP LUCAS here:
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1464570

ALERT OF THE WEEK

The Food Safety Enhancement Act Hurts Small Farmers and Organics
The House of Representatives is discussing H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. It's an attempt to address the evermore serious food safety crisis in conventional agriculture, but as it stands, the bill threatens to undermine the most positive development in U.S. agriculture - small organic or transition to organic farmers producing for local markets. H.R. 2749 needs to draw a clear line between small local growers and industrial/factory farms and processing plants
where food borne pathogens incubate, flourish, and spread.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob184.htm

[caphillprof]

09:57 PM on 07/15/2009

Sent: Mon 7/13/09 3:01 PM
To: [e-mail]

This is one of those time where I would like to get Arianna's attention.

The 10 best farmers' markets, like most best lists, is always gimmick and demographic and not reality. How incredible is it that the top 10 should be so geographically diverse?

If the green section were actually green, the best farmers' market is the one closest to the reader, preferably within walking distance or a short drive away and one that helps actual farmers providing nutritious food to real people rather than the so-called "organic" boutique "farmers" providing precious food for over-privileged eaters.

Of course your list is all over the place and not based on any realistic criteria. I had to laugh that you included the Forsythe Market, which is such a boon to its customers that it was closed the entire 4th of July weekend. Of course, the Pee Dee Farmers' Market is off your map. You girls need to get out more.

Apparently you don't get to the Baltimore Farmers' market, Sunday morning under the Jones Falls Expressway and have never seen an Amish farmers' market--try the one at North St. Mary's County, Maryland.

If you've never had the pork from the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market in Indianapolis, then you just don't know farmers' markets.

Did I mention San Clemente?

[derrickhoyle]

04:16 PM on 07/15/2009

I'm a fan of the Santa Barbara farmers market on Saturday morning. They have good stuff.

[jeanruss]

10:15 AM on 07/14/2009

Farmers Markets will start to disappear if HR 2749 is passed. Vendors at Farmers Markets will be forced to pay $500 ANNUALLY to participate. They will be forced to grow their crops according to FDA rules (organics will be tampered with) or face fines of $100,000. For more info go to www.ftcldf.org for more info. Agribusiness has bought and paid for our government. SIX democrats are sponsoring this horrendous bill. I can't believe Henry Waxman has signed on. What a phoney!

[Leslie Goldman]

10:14 AM on 07/14/2009

I love this story and want to upload photos! How do I upload photos here!????
Please help!!! Thanks

Leslie
Your Enchanted Gardener

PROS and CONS on #usbill FSEA #HR2749
FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT.
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1455917

This needs coverage in Huffington Post!!

[Mekrabb]

03:23 AM on 07/14/2009

Enough with thebias for New York. Everyone tunes out when it is obvious.

[Mum]

03:35 AM on 07/14/2009

How is mention of the Union Square Greenmarket biased? It's an excellent market.

[goodinuf]

01:24 AM on 07/14/2009

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is not even the best farmers market in San Francisco. The Alemany Farmers' Market in San Francisco is much larger and has better prices. The selection of produce at the Alemany market is outstanding. My favorite thing to do in the winter months is to walk the entire market tasting Oranges from more than a dozen citrus growers. Then going back and buying the sweetest and juiciest. Alemany first opened in 1943, I feel like I am in touch with California's agricultural history when I am there. http://www.sfgov.org/site/alemany_index.asp

[yuenzzzz]

01:50 AM on 07/15/2009

Agreed, The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is way too crowded and overpriced. It is a cool scene, but I like the one in San Rafael. Anyone can post their own list to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list. I think my list would include many from CA, it's the produce basket of the country.

[mikeoregon]

10:43 PM on 07/13/2009

Portland has a terrible farmers' market, in fact it has several truly horrible markets. No one in their right mind would ever visit a Portland farmers' market. All the really nice markets are in New York City and places like that. Avoid disappointment, steer clear of Portland!

[Mekrabb]

03:25 AM on 07/14/2009

Six of my friends have moved from the central valley to Portland and say their markets are good. I visited one up there when I helped them moved and one in Seattle and they were very good. Not sure why you bring up another market 3000 miles away no where close to a farm.

[BadgerinNJ]

10:24 PM on 07/13/2009

The photo does not do justice to Mad Town. On Wisconsin!

[Josh Popichak]

07:32 PM on 07/13/2009

The only one out of these 10 that I've been to is the Union Square Market in NYC. It was impressive, but for me it was too crowded (like most great places in the city). I kept getting jostled and knocked into homeless people, who were everywhere, sadly. There was also TONS of very noisy construction work going on all around, so it was hardly a serene shopping environment, which I kinda think a farmers market should have.

[punkingale]

07:09 PM on 07/13/2009

It's small, compared to our Farmer's Market, but Pepper Place In Birmingham, Alabama, really makes you want to go home and cook fresh food.

[Secomav]

05:54 PM on 07/13/2009

San Luis Obispo, Ca has the best farmers market on the planet.
If you disagree, you have not been downtown on a thursday night in SLOtown.
Phen-nominal.

[LibKitty]

08:05 PM on 07/13/2009

I agree. Now you've made me want to trek down to SLO on Thursday.

[goodinuf]

01:53 AM on 07/14/2009

SLO on Thursday night is excellent. The only farmers market I have been to where you can choose from so many varieties of avocados. It is not only a farmers market is a street festival.

[myjs]

05:29 PM on 07/13/2009

Best in the country!
Dane County (Madison - Capital Square)
If you visit, remember, the crowd travels counter clock-wise.

www.dcfm.org/

[Bub]

05:06 PM on 07/13/2009

Soulard Market in St. Louis. Long history, cheap prices, great produce, and just a dynamic place to visit.

[Schvenzlerman]

05:03 PM on 07/13/2009

It's nuts that the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia was not mentioned. It's only been going for over a hundred years replete with Amish.

[Josh Popichak]

07:30 PM on 07/13/2009

The Green Dragon in Ephrata, Lancaster County, is also HUGE and out of this world. And it's been around since the 1930s. If I lived closer I would definitely go there every week, but as it is I'm lucky to get there once a year or so. It's smack dab in the middle of some of the most fertile farmland in the region, and most of the food vendors there are Amish or Mennonite and continue to grow and prepare food in a time-honored way.

[goodinuf]

01:55 AM on 07/14/2009

I have been the the Reading Terminal Market in Philly It is a great experience even in the winter.