Fresh produce is the shit, but there’s a major difference between the cloned cabbages at your local supercenter and the glowing guava grown with tender love and care by a farmer in your own town.
On multiple occasions, I’ve gone to a place that rhymes with Barget, grabbed a bell pepper, took it home and sliced it open only to be greeted by a fuzzy colony of mold. That’s why it’s cool when you buy a pear or a bunch of kale and are able to say, “Hey, that guy right over there grew this, picked it two days ago and sold it to me this morning.”
So if you’re someone who likes to cook (or even someone who chomps on an apple every now and then), then let me introduce you to the Uptown Farmers Market. Though it’s still the new kid on the block, this monthly Sunday event has made a major difference in the way the people of Oklahoma City and beyond choose to buy and sell their fruits and vegetables.
We at Oxford Karma are all about supporting our local Oklahomies, so we chatted with market manager Andy Vaughn about his love of peaches, his goals for the Uptown district, and his desire to spread the nutritional word within his community.
Oxford Karma: Tell us the Uptown Farmers Market origin story.
Andy Vaughn: Well, I like farmers markets. Who doesn’t? I moved to the Midtown/Uptown area about four years ago. I’m from here but moved to California, moved back and was like, man, why is nobody really doing this? I mean, there were a couple of established markets — OSU/OKC is a good market — but nobody does it right in my neighborhood, right downtown. Every other district kind of has its monthly thing, and I wanted Uptown to have that too.
So I got involved volunteering for Uptown on their events committee, and I had the idea of hosting a farmers market. Luckily, I got involved with Loyal OKC (Linking Oklahoma’s Young Adult Leaders), so from about November until the first market opened in May, we met about twice a month to hash things out and recruit vendors and plan the logistics. Everything just came together from there.
OK: So why is this a cause that you’re passionate about?
Vaughn: I don’t think it’s something we have enough of in this country. Education especially is lacking. Most people go to the grocery store and have no idea where this watermelon came from, for example. It’s important to let people know that you can get the same produce, but produce that’s locally sourced and comes from less than 100 miles from your doorstep. Local farmers are working hard to grow these products, and people need to know what that’s all about. Basically, why not support your local economy and your friends and neighbors?
Photo: facebook.com/Uptown23rdFarmersMarket
OK: What sets you guys apart from some of the other local markets?
Vaughn: We try to put on more of an event than just a farmers market. I hadn’t seen it done like that before — not that it’s an original idea by any means, but we just hadn’t seen it around here, so it was like, why not entertain people while they’re doing their produce shopping?
So we have your typical produce vendors, but then we also have some artisan goods that have non-food items, and we try to have live music, plus an educational aspect through workshops. For example, at our first market we had a nutritionist demonstrate how to make a nutritional salad.
Another aspect that kind of goes along with the educational thing is we’re trying to make things affordable. Getting local, organic, affordable produce straight from the farmer is a big deal. We also accept SNAP payments, and we’re working toward accepting food stamps. Seventy percent of people within a five-mile radius of Uptown qualify for food stamps. Being able to accept food stamps at our farmers market would be a huge deal.
OK: The market’s definitely still a baby, but have you noticed growth since the first iteration in May?
Vaughn: When we started we had just over 30 vendors, and in July we’ll have 54. We definitely want to maintain what we’ve already done, and we’re planning for growth as well. Other than maybe tweaking the format a bit, we’re really happy with where we are since it’s only our third month. I feel like it’s now a keystone that binds together the Uptown community and gives it more purpose and impact.
OK: What has been one of your “man, this is worth it” moments so far?
Vaughn: At the first market, we had a really great 12- or 13-year-old mandolin player. Some kid from the Paseo area skateboarded down with his mandolin. He’d never heard of the market; he just came down to hang out, and he was rad. Made my day. Great example of how I hope this will encourage other neighborhoods to get together and form their own little micro-communities to give the market a deeper culture.
OK: What should people look for at the July market?
Vaughn: I got some really great peaches from the Chickasha area last month. They were just fantastic, and the peach season is pretty short so I’ll be getting more in July. Organic popsicles were big in June, and other than that there’s always great greenery like lettuce and asparagus. And we’ll have former gubernatorial candidate Joe Dorman — he has a watermelon farm in Rush Springs.
