Back in Business

After all, outdoor activity was encouraged only a month after the March lockdown, grocery store shopping had been deemed essential and getting food at an open-air green market was likely safer than a trip to an indoor big-box supermarket. Fruits and vegetables at farmers markets also pass through fewer hands than those reliant on massive supply chains, which result in food being touched by multitudes of clerks and hordes of customers.

But Legion Park – a City of Miami property – was shuttered when county parks were closed in March, and the farmers market permit was revoked. Just part of the new normal, thought Friedrich, a food activist and president of the Urban Oasis Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating food insecurity through encouraging and supporting urban gardens. 

“We were fine taking a break,” he said, since it would soon be summer and peak farmers market season begins in October.

In May, a handful of parks reopened in the city, and then, at the end of September, Mayor Francis Suarez swung open the green gates to all city parks to provide lockdown-weary residents a way to get some outdoor activity. Friedrich believed that getting the Legion Park farmers market permit reinstated would follow the usual process. He’d begun asking the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department about opening up again in August.

“They just kept saying, ‘No permits, no permits,’” Friedrich recalled. 

That initial inquiry became nearly five months of what he says was “pushing and pushing” for a reopening. Urban Oasis Project’s online market was doing OK, but Friedrich wanted his core customers back and was also concerned about the economic distress being felt by his farmer-suppliers.

“I buy from 15 to 20 different farms every week and I bring all that produce into one tent, and that’s a major source of income for all of those farms,” he said. “I’m an important outlet to them.”

Add to that the commitment Friedrich felt to residents.

“The farmers market in that park is a community gathering space and it is a core part of that neighborhood,” he said.

By the first week of October, it looked like the ice was starting to break. Friedrich was able to apply for a permit. He said he didn’t hear anything for a month. At the beginning of November, he encountered more red tape.

“They said they had a problem, but they couldn’t tell me what that problem was. Two weeks later, they told me they were concerned. So, I said, ‘What are the concerns, tell me what to do to fix it. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what they are,’” he said.

After what he calls a bureaucratic nightmare, Friedrich finally found out that “risk management was concerned.” But there was light in sight.

Supporting a Critical Community Resource

Biscayne Times spoke to newly appointed Miami Commissioner Jeffrey Watson on Dec. 4 about the Legion Park farmers market, at which time he had been on the job scarcely two weeks. When we caught up with him, he told us he’d learned from a constituent via email just 48 hours prior that the popular farmers market had been closed since mid-March due to the pandemic, and was unable to get clearance from the city to reopen. Meanwhile, every other farmers market in the county had already done so in various forms.

“I started asking questions, because we don’t have time to be sitting down and not doing anything,” said Watson. And then he told Biscayne Times that the problem had been resolved that day. The fly in the ointment turned out to be insurance and indemnifying city government from liability if someone contracted COVID-19 at the market. Why it took so long to resolve remains murky, but it appears the commissioner pushed the right buttons to swiftly get the problem resolved.

“We have institutions of all natures, public spaces, arts spaces, iconic spaces. [The Legion Park farmers market] should be open and now we’ve come to a conclusion that will allow it to operate, and it’s a good thing for the community. I’m glad I was able to help out in a small way,” said Watson.

With all the obstacles, Friedrich said moving the market to a private property where city “mumbo jumbo” wouldn’t be a factor had, indeed, crossed his mind, but only for a fleeting moment.

“Ironside would love to have me there,” Friedrich said of the Upper Eastside complex. “I don’t feel on principal that I could do that. I feel like this is a community-based market. It supports the community to be in a public park and the city should support it.”

And, at a time when the pandemic is worse than ever, Watson recognizes the value of doing business in the open air.  

“It’s great. I’ve been to Legion Park. There is diverse clientele and businesses at Legion Park. It’s a great opportunity. The more we can do to help out and encourage people to patronize the better off we are – it’s one more business in the win column helping the city and the district. It’s incumbent on us to help them be successful,” he said.

After gaining the support of the commissioner, Friedrich had a strong feeling the farmers market would be bustling and back in business by Saturday, Dec. 12. As he continued to distribute boxes of produce from the warehouse where customers had been ordering online and then driving through to pick up their goods, he began spreading the word.

“The week before, I kept telling people we were going to be back. The joy and the relief that so many people expressed was something to see,” he said. “It was going to be a way for them to have a sense of normalcy to come back to in a very difficult year.”

Building a New Normal

Chris French, owner and operator of French Farms, located in the Redlands, South Florida’s historic agricultural neighborhood, has been part of the Legion Park farmers market for the last seven years.

“I’ve watched it evolve into a great market for us. It was frustrating those last couple of weeks waiting for it to start up again,” he said.

The farmers market that Friedrich runs on Sundays at Vizcaya had already been back for three weeks prior to Legion Park’s reopening. And Market Mondays at the Adrienne Arsht Center had never really gone away. He said the Arsht became a spot for customers to pick up their orders from Urban Oasis Project’s online store.

“We are on the valet ramp and people drive up and get their preordered box,” said Friedrich. “There are some vendors with tables, too, and people can shop out of their car window if they want. We also have people from the neighborhood who ride their bikes or take a walk over.”

While returning to the farmers market did give customers that “sense of normalcy,” it is definitely a new normal at farmers markets.

“In the past, to create a successful farmers market, you parked your vendors together and created narrow walkways because people like to feel crowded – that’s the atmosphere, that’s what people want,” said Friedrich.

While maintaining the free spirit of the farmers market, COVID-19 protocols have been put into place. Marketgoers who came out to Legion Park on opening day saw modifications, including tents spaced 10 feet apart.

“That way, people waiting at one tent would not be near the people at another,” said Friedrich. 

There’s now one long row of vendors rather than the usually tight two rows. One side is open, so there’s tons of free walking space, according to Friedrich. Hand sanitizer is plentiful at booths and there is a hand-washing station at the market’s entrance. Mask wearing for everyone – from customers to vendors – is strictly enforced. And the ever popular sampling, a staple of the farmers market, is suspended for now.

“As soon as you’re sampling, people are taking masks off, they are touching things and breathing on products that other people are going to be buying,” Friedrich said, adding that the Farmers Market Coalition and other national groups have compiled best practices from farmers markets opened throughout the summer all over the country.

There were some silver lining moments (or in this case, maybe green) resulting from the farmers market shutdown. French Farms began hosting its first-ever CSA (community supported agriculture) produce subscription service.

“We were really in touch with our customers on social media, so we started making these assortment boxes for people to pick up,” said French, who added that the power of the hyperlocal food system that stems from places like farmers markets helped him replace some of the business that was lost when sales to restaurants virtually went to zero.

“It was unfortunate that the restaurant sales dropped off in March, but we were able to transition to online sales really fast,” he said. “Selling those boxes really helped.”

But French said nothing compared to that Dec. 12 reopening of the Legion Park market.

Looking Toward a Brighter Future

Assessing opening day turnout, “It wasn’t the typical crowd that the farmers market used to draw,” said French. “There were hard-core shoppers out there. Previously, you’d see people milling around, socializing, maybe buying an empanada and a juice. The people that grocery shopped with us miraculously showed up. I was worried that it would take a while to rebuild, but it seemed like they were waiting for us.”

Not planning on having that kind of traffic, French said he underestimated the amount of produce he took with him.

“We sold out our core products by 11 a.m., but it’s better than going home with stuff.”

The Lincoln Road farmers market, which normally runs every Sunday between Washington and Meridian Avenues, was also closed in March but reopened Nov. 1. 

Claire Tomlin, president of The Market Company, which runs the market, is delighted to be back, though some of her vendors haven’t returned. 

“It’s small in relation to what it has been in the past. It will redevelop, though,” she said.

While there’s still foot traffic on Lincoln Road, Tomlin said after running the market for 23 years in a contract with the city of Miami Beach, she’s noticed a difference.

“Because of COVID-19, the hotels are not as full and residents are reluctant to be out, but the business improvement district has done a lot of creative visioning,” she said.

On Saturdays and Sundays, artisanal donut food truck The Salty Donut swings by and parks close to Meridian Avenue to draw people in. El Bagel has a pop-up near the Euclid Oval. Plus, musicians from the New World Symphony pass by playing music on golf carts the first weekend of the month.

“We have a lot at the market,” Tomlin said. “Lots and lots of produce, we have a French cheese vendor, two bakeries, a tea and spice vendor. We just have a lot of variety.”

Before the pandemic closed the Lincoln Road farmers market, Tomlin said there were 40 vendors that would set up every Sunday.

“We have 15 right now. We are doing absolutely fine,” she asserted. “Fortunately, there’s lots of interest now that we are back. It will just take a little while to rebuild to close to where we were. I’d say in the next two to four months, we’ll be back to normal.” 

If You Go

Arsht Center Market Mondays 1300 Biscayne Blvd.; drive-through market on the valet ramp on 13th Street; Mondays, 4 – 6 p.m.; arshtcenter.org/visit/market-mondays. 

Lincoln Road Farmers Market Lincoln Road between Washington and Meridian Avenues; Sundays, 9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.; lincolnroadmall.com/lincoln-road-farmers-market-takes-place-every-sunday. 

Legion Park Farmers Market NE 66th Street and Biscayne Boulevard; Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Vizcaya Village Farmers Market 3250 South Miami Ave.; Sundays, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Visit urbanoasisproject.org for additional info on the Legion Park and Vizcaya Village farmers markets.