Photograph by Guy Hand
Janie Burns,
Meadowlark Farm
“When you go to the farmers market you’re paying farmers who are more closely approaching the true cost of raising the food.”
Janie Burns of Meadowlark Farm brought her first harvest to market in Boise in 1989, “I had 35 heads of lettuce and I made twenty-seven dollars, and so I thought, ‘OK, well, this looks like success to me.’ So the next week I came back with a bit more.”
What really motivated her to sell at the farmers market? “When virtually everybody said, ‘What else do you have the rest of the year?’ And at that moment, I was hooked and I’ve been listening to my customers ever since about what they want, how they want it, when they want it.”
And Janie’s conversation doesn’t stop there, “That personal touch at the market allows you to not just talk about the product, but to talk about the bigger issues that face farmers and our community.”
Experience has taught her that she does best when the entire community is thriving, “I have to be surrounded by success for me to be a success. So that’s why the market, I think, is so important. It brings successful people together.”