The Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market could move this summer to downtown Traverse City's Open Space along Grand Traverse Bay. The move from Parking Lot B is being considered by the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) because "having the extra space would be valuable to both the customer and the vendor" as social distancing continues, notes DDA CEO Jean Derenzy. Derenzy says any such move would have to be coordinated with the Parks Commission and City Commission. Regardless of where the farmers market ends up for summer 2020, it will not likely begin until July. 

Meanwhile the virtual farmers market, held online, tracked big numbers in its first month, recording approximately $75,000 across 1,500 orders throughout May. Harry Burkholder, who helps oversee the Farmers Market as the COO of the DDA, says the numbers have significantly “exceeded expectations” – and inspired the DDA and its partners at SEEDS and Taste the Local Difference to maintain virtual market offerings for the foreseeable future.

“We're looking forward to see what the online marketplace is going to look like heading into the summer,” Burkholder says. “At the same time, we are still looking at starting up the physical farmers market..."

In previous years, the Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market has been held twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. According to Burkholder, the plan is to restart the physical farmers market on Saturday mornings, but operate the Wednesday market virtually. With the current virtual setup, customers can browse available products online and place orders throughout the week, with a cutoff of Thursday at 10am. Farmers market pickups then occur on Saturday mornings, with customers receiving assigned timeslots based on their last names. This basic model would stay intact for a Wednesday virtual model, with pickup times likely shifting to Wednesday evenings instead of Saturday mornings.

For the virtual market, online payments, assigned pickup times, and a “social distance line” have helped ensure safety for customers and volunteers alike. Burkholder says farmers market partners are now looking at ways to resume the physical market in a similarly safe fashion. For instance, the layout of the market may change or spread out to allow for greater social distancing.

When asked how virtual May sales compare to previous years of in-person markets, Burkholder notes that the DDA has never tracked overall transactions or revenue totals for the Sara Hardy market – though he expects such data will be monitored going forward. In terms of total participation of northern Michigan farmers, though, the virtual market is down considerably from years past. Burkholder estimates that a typical Sara Hardy market would draw roughly 120 vendors; so far, around 70 have participated virtually.

“A lot of those are because their product wasn’t ready for season yet,” Burkholder says of the farmers not participating, citing northern Michigan spring as a slower time for farmers markets by default. “We might experience more [virtual market vendors] moving down the line." One example is Loma Farm, a Leelanau vegetable farm that will participate in the virtual market for the first time this weekend.

Some farms have simply chosen not to take part. Chelsea Huddleston of Huddleson Farm in Kewadin says she and her partner Nick Olson were concerned that their farm – which is brand new this growing season – would not have the name recognition with local consumers to establish a foothold in an all-virtual setup. Huddleson is instead focusing on its home delivery CSA program for now.

Sue Kurta of Boss Mouse Cheese says she’s extremely grateful to have the option of an online market, but tells The Ticker that her sales have averaged much lower than what she would expect at a typical in-person Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market. While Kurta notes that the first week of the market – where almost 400 customers placed $16,000 worth of online orders – was “comparable to a physical market week,” those figures haven’t recurred, at least among the vendors she’s spoken to.

“That [first week] was a great week for sales but it's been all downhill since then,” Kurta explains. “Every week has seen subsequently less and less and less [in sales], including this week. That's a trend we've noticed [at Boss Mouse], and I know some other makers and farmers have seen it as well. I'd say we're probably moving about a quarter of what we would normally move at a physical market.”

Kurta also says there has been a learning curve to the virtual market, at least for businesses like hers that have not previously sold their products online. From managing product listings and quantities to getting order “pick lists” from Sara Hardy and making sure everything gets to Lot B in Downtown Traverse City on Saturday mornings, the logistics of the virtual market represent a surprising amount of extra work. It’s work that vendors may have less time for as physical markets throughout the region resume and demand more attention. While the Traverse City market doesn’t have a firm date for resuming in-person operations, others are already starting up: the Suttons Bay Farmers Market kicked off on May 23, while the Elk Rapids Farmers Market will start this Friday.

“I’ll take it, though,” Kurta says of the virtual farm market opportunity. “I'm grateful that that they've even set up an option like that for us. A sale is a sale, whether we make it at a physical market or make it online.”