Mixed greens

Want a side dish of current events to go with that fresh asparagus or no-hormones milk in the old-fashioned glass jug? You can get all that at one of the region's many farmers markets.

For those markets that do business only in warmer weather, this season's staggered openings began in early May and will continue through the summer months.

In 2009, the markets are an unusual mix of greens - organic produce and wilted economic factors that are causing people to recalculate their budgets and their lifestyles.

National and local market advocates believe that will add up to a good year for the small-business farmers and other vendors who set up tables across the Philadelphia region and the nation.

"I think people are eating out less. You might just stay home and buy special ingredients," said Nicky Uy, who manages the farmers market programs at the Food Trust, a Philadelphia organization that promotes nutrition. The Food Trust operates about 30 farmers markets in this region.

Budgetary belt-tightening may be one factor behind what seems to be a national trend for these alternatives to supermarkets.

"Generally, sales at farmer markets are on the rise," said Stacy Miller, executive director of the national umbrella group, the Farmers Market Coalition. "As people's budgets change, so do their priorities. . . . There's a much bigger emphasis now on cooking and eating at home."

Miller surveyed the coalition's board of directors - made up of farmers market officials, some in states where business is well under way - and found foot traffic up in Dallas and sales up 20 percent over last year in Seattle.

"There's certainly a huge increase in interest in farmers markets," said Joanna Pernick, who heads the farmers market program for Farm to City, a community-agriculture group based in Philadelphia. Farm to City hasn't been able to handle all the requests from communities wanting to start farmers markets.

The group operates 14 markets in Philadelphia and its suburbs, including two new ones this season - in Manayunk, at the Canal View park on Main Street, and in Bryn Mawr, in the municipal lot on Lancaster Avenue in front of the Bryn Mawr train station.

The Food Trust has new or relocated markets this year at Broad and South Streets in Philadelphia; by Temple University on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Broad Street; a Saturday expansion of the popular Sunday Headhouse Farmers Market at Second and Lombard Streets; and in Lansdowne, on Lansdowne Avenue between Baltimore Pike and Stewart Avenue.

The Saturday Headhouse market builds on a trend of offering cooked food with the addition of a stand selling tacos al pastor, a specially marinated meat taco on a stick that is garnished on top with pineapple.

The Food Trust again is lining up local musicians to play at farmers markets.

"It's becoming a more popular thing," said Uy, to promote local music along with the locally grown produce, dairy products, and bakery. "It makes it a more enjoyable shopping experience."

Farm to City is sticking with the basics.

At a recent session of its Tuesday afternoon market on Passyunk Avenue between South and Bainbridge Streets, vendors from Lancaster County, Kennett Square, and Wilmington sold bakery goods, organic eggs, vegetables, mushrooms, flowers, and plants.

Cynthia Cross, 46, stopped at the market on her way home to South Philly from her job at Pennsylvania Hospital. She's a farmers market zealot.

"The ingredients are fresh and they're cheaper," Cross said.

Plus, she added, if she's buying groceries at a farmers market, there are fewer chances for her to plunk a bag of potato chips or other junk food into her basket at a supermarket.

At the first Saturday session of the Food Trust's Overbrook Farms market, on 63d Street between Sherwood Road and and Overbrook Avenue, customers were greeting returning Lancaster County farmers Joseph and Jessica Christophel by name.

"Did you have a good winter? How are the girls?" asked customer and nearby resident Ginny Duerr.

The Christophels were prepared - they handed Duerr a wallet-sized family photo. The couple said the income boost to what they sold at home made the two-hour drive worthwhile. They also enjoy getting to know customers and their tastes. Come apple time, Joseph Christophel said with a laugh, they'll bring plenty of Honeycrisps.

That local touch also helps soothe concerns about another current-events issue: food safety. A movie scheduled to be released next month, Food Inc., takes aim at the big-business food industry.

Cross, who was at the Passyunk Avenue market, is glad to know her food is grown at local, family-owned farms.

She lifted her bag of produce and said: "This is coming from dirt that's only a few miles away."