People gathered at the downtown Sioux City Farmers Market on Saturday, Aug. 8, browsing local vendors for handmade clothing, jams and jellies, and fresh leafy greens
Nathan Howe, owner of Nate’s Farm, has sold at the market for three years.
He says concerns about cyclospora, and food recalls have driven more customers to seek out locally grown produce.
“They’re looking for a safe opportunity, a safe place to get food that they don’t have to worry about. So local food, the farmers market is one of those because you get to talk to the person that grew it. Like there’s nothing here that I didn’t plant the seed or harvest it. So I know this entire thing. It’s not lost in the paperwork somewhere,” Howe said.
Howe says growing small and shopping small gives consumers more control over the quality of food that reaches their table. He also said growing a wide variety of crops helps protect his business if one item is affected by a contamination issue.
“I mean, if I grew nothing but lettuce and I had an issue like this is happening, then my whole business would be done because that’s all I did because I would just be very specialized in it. But the fact that I grew 27 to 30 different items all summer long, but if I do have an issue, it just, that just kind of gets folded into having all these other varieties of things,” Howe said.
The Sioux City Farmers Market is open every Wednesday and Saturday through October from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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