Luverne Farmers Market finished the first month of the 2021 season with good participation in a new program.
Now organizers are lifting coronavirus prevention measures — like no touching the produce — that have been in place for a year.
Corrine Bonnema is the member-elected president of the Luverne Farmers Market.
“This year they get to squeeze the tomatoes (touch the produce),” she said.
However, some of the measures — such as drive-up buying — are now common practice.
PoP Plus proves to be popular event
The children-focused Power of Produce (PoP) program returned this year, along with PoP Plus, which is directed toward adults 60 and older.
PoP educates participants on the nutritional value of eating market items. The children, ages 4 through 12, receive a weekly $2 token to spend on produce at the market.
Pop Plus registrants receive $4 tokens each week.
Bonnema said funding for the PoP Plus program is through the Minnesota Association of Area Agencies on Aging, which received legislative funding Wednesday.
“If the legislature didn’t approve the money, we would have been suspending the program,” she said.
Since its start in early June, the program has 60 registered adults.
In-person activities also resume for the PoP programs as a result of the lift in coronavirus restrictions.
Drought affecting produce supply
First-year vendor Andrew Ainsworth owns Kanaranzi Greens, which specializes in leafy greens and root vegetables in rural Rock County.
“It’s been a difficult year,” Ainsworth admitted.
With Rock County under severe drought conditions, yields have not been as abundant.
Ainsworth said his garden started as a food source for his growing family with the over-production offered at the farmers market.
“Everything we grow, we pull,” he said.
After preparing produce for the market, the produce parts not meant for human consumption are fed to the family’s laying hens and soon-to-be ready broilers.
Ainsworth said attendees at the Luverne Farmers Market have been “fantastic” supporters.
He’s learned more about which produce is preferred by customers and how to more effectively grow that produce under a variety of weather conditions.
Customers drop by weekly
Because produce and other items brought to the market vary from week to week, customers have a weekly habit of dropping by the Thursday evening event.
For Terry and Amy Lou Reisch of Luverne, the stop took a matter of minutes.
Amy Lou said the couple didn’t plant a garden and instead buy what’s available from farmers market vendors.
On Thursday they purchased turnips from Ainsworth and they checked with other vendors to see what was coming up in the following weeks.
Luverne Farmers Market is open Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. at Redbird Field on East Main Street.