Palos Markets Offer More Than Just Tomatoes

For residents of the Palos area, fresh produce is not hard to come by.

With Palos Heights, Palos Hills and Palos Park each holding a farmers market (each on a different day of the week), there are plenty of opportunities to grab fresh, locally grown produce. For many residents, something even more substantial can be found at the markets — a sense of community.

As the concepts of going green and being more health conscious continue to impact people's lives, the farmers markets marry together the ideals of environmental responsibility, community awareness and treating one's body better.

Another concept the markets celebrate is supporting local business. There has been a lot of chatter politically and socially about putting Main Street before Wall Street. Famers Markets have the added benefit of including those on the rural routes by putting them on Main Street for at least a few hours a week.

Melissa Richardson, of Palos Hills, made her weekly visit to the farmers market on Tuesday, July 27. She said she prefers the food from farmers markets to those at chain stores, but she does more than stock her fridge.

"I like supporting local farmers," she said. "It feels like supporting a small business, which I really respect."

Richardson knows something about small business, having worked for a small, family-owned fine dining establishment in Chicago. She said the restaurant buys almost exclusively from local growers or at some of the city's many farmers markets. She appreciated that kind of thoughtfulness toward neighboring farmers and was inspired to do the same. She has since made a visit to the Palos Hills Market (located at Southwest Highway and 114th Place) a weekly tradition.

Just a few miles farther down Southwest Highway, in the parking lot of the Palos Park Presbyterian Community Church, on 123rd Street and 88th Avenue, the Palos Park Women's Club has worked to provide Palos Park residents with a farmers market as far back as the early 1900s.

Women's Club member Helga Fuller is currently in charge of running the market. She said she couldn't say there had been a market every year since the relationship began, but she said it likely has  been active most of those years.

For Palos Park market goers, it's all about the people, Fuller said.

"Everyone here knows each other and we see a lot of our neighbors," she said. "The sense of community, that's the best part, really."

Vendors agree that the people make the markets thrive — and make them fun.

Donna Walsh and her husband, Mark, of M&D Farms in Homer Glen, were at the Palos Park market on Friday, July 30. In fact, they've been weekly regulars for more than 20 years. Donna laughed as she talked about seeing toddlers turn into teens, one week at a time.

She said that particular Friday was an emotional day. A man who had been coming to the market almost as long as Donna and her husband had been regulars informed the couple that his wife had died.

"It was hard. We've seen them every week," Donna Walsh said. "I remember [the customer's wife] would even call me every now and then to find out when we were going to have our pickles ready."

As  more and more towns have sought to have their own weekly market, some problems have arisen. Despite the growing popularity of markets, Palos Park has seen a serious decrease in attendance in recent years.

"Our market is shrinking because there is so much competition now," Fuller said. "Orland Park decided to start a market about seven years ago, and they put it on the same day as ours."

Fuller said the Orland market is much larger and has drawn some shoppers and vendors away from Palos Park. But she said loyal customers and vendors keep the market going.

Donna and Mark Walsh remember when they had lines of people 20 deep leading up to their booth.

"There are too many markets and too much competition," Donna Walsh said.

The increased popularity of farmers markets has led to some commercial farmers trying to sneak in, Walsh said. That makes it harder for the independent farmer, who can be at only one market at a time. While more markets in more towns would seem to mean more opportunities for farmers, in reality it means fewer buyers at each individual market. So, in many cases, vendors truly  have become victims of the growing success of farmers markets during recent years.

"I think this is sort of a trend that will pass, though," Mark Walsh said. "The markets will go back to the way they were [smaller and fewer in number]."