Step Into Seattle Farmers Market

Seattle's farmers markets are on an upswing, existing on a wing and a prayer -- and on a belief in a sustainable future. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of markets and in the number of hours they operate. In fact, the Seattle U-District Farmers Market is now open Saturdays 9 AM - 2 PM year round. You can find tubers in the winter, tulips in the spring, and hand-crafted edibles such as jam, bread, cider, and cheese throughout the year.

It's in the summer sun, though, that the farmers market really shines. In June, you find many varieties of cherries, including the world renowned gold-and-blush colored Rainier cherry, named for Washington's Mount Rainier. Cherry season is followed by blackberry and nectarine season, and -- as summer falls back into fall -- by a wide variety of Washington grown apples.

There are so many people to interact with at the produce market! In the warm, relatively rain-free months, you'll see moms strolling with young children, musicians strumming the guitar for pocket money (and for pleasure!) as well as the occasional vendor hawking Real Change newspaper. It's a friendly place. Low-income shoppers can use their electronic food stamps to buy fruit and vegetables from any of the Seattle Neighborhood Alliance Farmers Markets.

The U-District Market is my own local market. Local is a relative term, of course. For me, it is a short walk up 'the Ave' on silvery Saturday mornings. Some of the farmers, though, have come from the other side of the Cascade Mountains, as far east as Ellensburg and Wenatchee. Sunday will find many of them setting out fruits and veggies in one of Seattle's other farmers markets, perhaps West Seattle or Broadway. For these farmers, it's a way of life: locally grown and organic. This page is an introduction to Seattle's farmers markets: the seven markets of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, the four members of the Seattle Farmers Market Association, the solitary Queen Anne market.

Royalties from the page go to the Grameen Foundation and to some even smaller markets -- micro-businesses -- far away. But step with me first into Seattle...