BUCKHANNON – Festival Fridays may be winding down, but the Buckhannon-Upshur Farmers Market will continue selling local, fresh produce through October.
Farmers Market president Donnie Tenney attended the Aug. 20 Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur meeting to talk to members about the market’s continued efforts to grow and sell local produce, despite roadblocks along the way.
“Fifteen or 18 signed up for the market this year,” Tenney said. “Traditionally, some sign up and then don’t participate, but I think, for the last few weeks, I’ve been the only one that has had produce. We have another grower from French Creek that’s a pretty good-sized grower, but he’s had some health issues, and that’s taken him out of the situation.”
Tenney said many first-time farmers struggle to get started, while established farmers are battling the elements, as well as inflation. Drought has affected West Virginia this summer.
“Everyone knows and feels the impact of inflation,” Tenney said. “Four years ago, we paid $12 a pound for our sweet corn seed, and this year it’s $36 a pound. Fertilizer has doubled, and we used to get farm help for $10 an hour, but now it’s $15 to get anybody to help. And you always lose 30 to 40 percent of what you have planted to insects, animals, the weather — especially this year, with this dry weather.”
Tenney said his farm in Tallmansville experienced more rain than the area within the city limits, but other costs continue to rise.
“We’ve been very fortunate to get more rain than most people, but with the high temperatures that we’ve experienced the last couple of months, our electric bill was $400 due to the walk-in cooler and fans we have in the greenhouse, and our city water bill was $225,” he said.
He said there are also fewer people going to the farmers market looking to make purchases.
“There are 24,000 people in Upshur County, and on an average farmer’s market night, from 4 to 8 p.m. on Fridays, we see about 60 people,” Tenney said. “We do probably need to advertise our market times better, but what else can we do? What can we do to encourage you folks to participate in the local farmers market?”
Tenney said there are two sides to making a farmers market work: growers and buyers.
“Here’s the dilemma we face: if we don’t have more participation to get more people involved in growing, then eventually old people like me are going to die or get to the point we can’t farm like we would like to,” Tenney said. “It takes both sides of that dynamic; it takes people to grow, to have produce, to sell, and it takes people to buy in order to keep people growing.”
Tenney cited the 1890 census of Upshur County, when 90 percent of occupations at the time were listed as farmers.
“There were probably 35 or 40 dairies just in Upshur County back then, and now there are 32 dairy farms statewide,” Tenney said. “One of the big problems is the government has made restrictions and made it so hard for small operators to follow those guidelines, and the same thing’s happening in agriculture. We’re fortunate here that we don’t have all those countywide restrictions, but a lot of places, it’s very difficult to farm. Folks move in next to a farm, and then they start complaining about the sounds and the smells, and it’s really a problem.”
Tenney encouraged everyone to continue supporting the farmers market, even though Festival Fridays is coming to an end soon.
“The farmers market will continue through the month of October, so after this Friday, you don’t have to worry about fighting the traffic,” Tenney said. “Come on down, and we’ll have a lot of pumpkins, sunflowers and all this good stuff.”
