Farmers' Markets of the Heartland

MINNESOTA

Minnesota Residents of warmer climates may expect little variety from Minnesota, but quite the opposite is true. Minnesota farmers offer a wide diversity of foods to sell at the farmers’ markets, including unexpected items like wild rice, house-milled flour, and pastureraised bison. Farmers’ markets have been part of Minnesota life since settlement days—St. Paul’s city charter provided for a farmers’ market in 1854. And Minnesota is the home to the Honeycrisp apple, one of the greatest farmers’ market success stories.  The locations of many Minnesota markets illustrate how settlements , and later cities, grew up near water. Many markets are held in town centers overlooking rivers or lakes. One of our nation’s major waterways, the Mississippi River, originates at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and meanders its way through the Twin Cities before becoming the wide, imposing presence made famous by Mark Twain. It is along this river that we find one of the Twin Cities’ most significant markets, and an important part of the region’s history. 184 minnesota Mill City Farmers’ Market Founded 2006 70+ vendors Saturdays, May through October 704 South Second Street at Mill City Museum, Minneapolis The Mill City Farmers’ Market puts forward a striking presence on a cloudless, windswept, autumn day and seems to be the quintessential Minneapolis experience. The location itself makes it an attractive destination, situated a block from the Mississippi River and tucked into the Mill City Museum and across from the impressive marble Arlo Guthrie Theater. The market starts under cover, where in the past train cars would pull in to load up on flour. Tents spill out into the open air. Step dancers perform in full lumberjack regalia. A mother-and-daughter pair of goats are at the ready to meet children—and people like me who like goats. The cooking demonstration station had a crowd of about one hundred, and not only for when the cook was handing out the samples. The 1880 mill—now a museum—heralded five decades of dominance in the milling industry, using water power from the St. Anthony Falls. Grain arrived from the Great Plains, and the Washburn A mill alone made enough flour for 12 million loaves of bread a day. But its technology became obsolete, and the mill closed in 1965 when milling moved away from water power. The building was almost destroyed by fire in 1991. The operation became part of what is now General Mills, still located in the Twin Cities and still making the most widely available brands of flour, Gold Medal and Pillsbury. The ruins were shored up by the Minneapolis Community Development Agency then turned over to the Minnesota Historical Society to develop a museum at the site. Although the museum is a fantastic example of creative reuse, and it certainly pays homage to the city’s heritage as a milling powerhouse, one cannot help but feel uncomfortable to see the ruins of the mills. At one time several flour companies operated in Minneapolis. But, as with so many indications of progress, it stands as a stern reminder of how time marches on and how consolidated Facing page: The ruins of the 1880 mill, now a museum minnesota   185 186 minnesota our food systems have become, making markets more important to balance things out. The Mill City Market applies a wider interpretation of what is considered local, expanding to include what might be called handcrafted food, or hand-caught food, in the case of a fisherman who sells Alaska salmon that he has fished from his own boat, frozen, and brought back. And there is a purveyor who sells coffee from his family’s plantation in Guatemala. The market was founded by Brenda Langton, a salt-of-the-earth chef who founded Café Brenda in the late 1970s to serve vegetarian fare featuring local growers, back when local food was considered a fringe hippie movement rather than a way to enjoy the taste of the soil and a connection to neighbors. Langton was buying from local growers long before this boom time when farmers became the new rock stars of the food world, first at Café Brenda and later at Spoonriver, right next door to the market. The Mill City Farmers’ Market is a natural extension of her devotion to farmers, and likely a way to keep a few in business.  She laments the ongoing discussion about price and cringes at the...