Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Bring on fresh fruit, veggies
Lindsey Nair
Front Burner blog
Recent columns
- Be sharp about knives
- What restaurant staffers shouldn't do
- Good gourds: How to make your own pumpkin pie filling
- Column archive
Recipes
Mantana Heim has been an exchange student in a foreign land and a linguistics teacher for Peace Corps volunteers.
She speaks two languages fluently and worked as a probation officer for 10 years. Perhaps most impressive to me, the woman -- who now teaches Thai cooking out of her home -- makes curry paste from scratch.
Given all that, Heim, 64, figured it wouldn't be difficult to start a farmer's market near her home in Moneta.
She grew up in Thailand and has traveled Europe, where fresh markets carrying fresh produce, meats and seafood are the norm.
Heim's mother went to the market every day to see what looked good, then planned meals around that, she said.
"So to get everything canned and stuff, it just annoys me."
She thought the people of Moneta deserved the same access to fresh ingredients, and the money ought to go straight back into the local economy and help area farmers.
"I just want to have an affordable market with fruit and produce so regular people can afford it," Heim said.
"I would like to be able to get a peach that smells like a peach. At the supermarket, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is not."
But Mantana (pronounced MONT-ah-naugh) found that it wasn't simple at all to organize a new market. Even in this era when farmer's markets are popping up across the state like tulips on a warm spring day, she still feels as though her market is struggling.
A rough start
When I first met her, I could tell that Mantana Heim is a woman driven by her missions. After giving me a cupful of lemongrass green tea, she gave me an earful about the difficulties she's faced getting a market up and running.
She said she first went to the Moneta library in the spring of 2008 for permission to hold a market in the library parking lot. For the next few months, she said, she was shuffled between the library and the county, neither of which seemed willing to give her permission to start a market. Finally, in August 2008, she got approval from the library board to hold a market day there. The delay frustrated her and made her wonder if officials feared that her market would compete with the farmers market in downtown Bedford.
Photos by Lindsey Nair | The Roanoke Times
Mantana Heim, who teaches Thai cooking, insists upon fresh vegetables in her food.
Heim's pad thai.
Sue Montgomery, the economic development director for Bedford County, doesn't anticipate a problem, despite the fact it seems both markets will be open on weekends this year.
"Not in a county the size of ours," she said. "And I think today people really do want to buy local food. I think there really is more interest than ever in being able to grow fresh food and fresh produce, so I certainly cannot imagine that the two would threaten each other."
Montgomery said she regrets that Heim felt like she was being ignored. She said Heim just needed to put together a specific proposal about her market plan and submit it to the county for consideration. If she fills out a budget request for next summer, Montgomery said, Heim might even get some financial support from the county.
"A proposal would need to be put together with some clear definition of how it would work, who would be responsible for what, what the budget would entail and a request for funding," Montgomery said.
Heim maintains that she was never told such a thing. It remains to be seen whether she will try to fill out such a proposal for next year.
Market on the move
This year, Heim said the market will be at the Moneta library on grand opening day, April 24, to coincide with a big exposition nearby. But after that, the market will be set up in a large, empty field beside Resurrection Catholic Church on Virginia 122. That site is more spacious, has better visibility and can accommodate larger signs, she said.
Heim said she obtained permission from the landowner to the site and has the necessary liability insurance. Now all she needs are more vendors.
Of the 15 or so on her list from last year, she has only received completed forms and checks from about a half-dozen. While last year's market booths were free to vendors, Heim is charging $10 per day this year to help pay for the insurance, which she paid for herself.
"I put the money out on faith," she said. "My biggest fear is people that won't come because they want to see a lot of vendors there before they go." Some of the vendors who will be there include Donnie Gross of Gross's Orchard in Bedford County, who grows fruit and vegetables, and Jennifer Downey of Night Sky Farm in Campbell County, who makes farmstead goat cheese.
"I think she has done a great job," Downey said of Heim. "The farmer's market there is good for starting new businesses, it is good as a place to educate people about where their food comes from and how it is made."
Both Downey and Gross said they were excited about the new, more visible venue.
A prime time to talk
Perhaps Heim's story underscores a need for more communication and cooperation not only between markets and local governments, but also among the market organizers themselves.
Matt Benson, an extension specialist with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, said the number of farmer's markets in the state has risen from 88 in 2005 to 143 so far in 2009.
"I have heard that there is an effort across the state to better organize our farmers markets and provide some more assistance to market managers in the form of education," Benson said.
For example, some states have established a farmers market association to facilitate conversation between market managers. Benson said Virginia might benefit from such an association.
"How can we as a state best and most efficiently, most profitably for the farmers, match up the supply of local foods with the demand for local foods?" he said.
It's a good question. And, as more markets open across the state, it is a question that deserves consideration.
To learn more about the Moneta Farmer's Market or to sign up as a vendor, contact Mantana Heim at (540) 297-5789 or smlthaichef@aol.com.
