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Winter farmers market - report
Jan. 9th, 2021 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squirrelitudeNow that the winter farmers market at the Armory has been running for a few weeks, I wanted to check in and report on my experiences.
The way it works is that you preorder, then sign up for a time slot for pickup. You arrive at the Armory, go into the big space, and circulate to the left until you find the table for your name. (There's also a SNAP/EBT table in the entryway.) They then hand you the bag, and you move on to the refrigerated section, and hand them your order list so they can pick your bags from the appropriate vendors' coolers. (I didn't have a printer, but I was able to get the order sheet from the non-refrigerated pickup bag.) Then you head out.
There's also a "live market" out back in the parking lot (since no parking is allowed) where you can make purchases. I don't know how long the lines tend to be, though, or which vendors are there on which days, or what happens when there's snow.
So. I think this is all very nice in theory, and I'm super grateful that they're doing it, but in practice it has been a bit turbulent.
Today I ended up having to be indoors for 11 minutes, which is definitely over the indoor-air budget I would normally allot for such a thing. (I should note that there's a curbside pickup option, but it's only for people particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.) They've been keeping the front doors open the whole time, but that's pretty limited for air exchange. A few of my items didn't make it into the bags, so I had to wait around while volunteers checked the coolers several times over. And finally I had to go to the live market out back to pick up the items directly from the vendors. I think next time I'm going to skip pick-up and just wait in line outdoors.
Again, I'm thrilled that we have this market! And I'm not totally sure what I would change about the process to make it go better. But I wanted to follow up from my previous post so that people had realistic expectations.
The way it works is that you preorder, then sign up for a time slot for pickup. You arrive at the Armory, go into the big space, and circulate to the left until you find the table for your name. (There's also a SNAP/EBT table in the entryway.) They then hand you the bag, and you move on to the refrigerated section, and hand them your order list so they can pick your bags from the appropriate vendors' coolers. (I didn't have a printer, but I was able to get the order sheet from the non-refrigerated pickup bag.) Then you head out.
There's also a "live market" out back in the parking lot (since no parking is allowed) where you can make purchases. I don't know how long the lines tend to be, though, or which vendors are there on which days, or what happens when there's snow.
So. I think this is all very nice in theory, and I'm super grateful that they're doing it, but in practice it has been a bit turbulent.
Today I ended up having to be indoors for 11 minutes, which is definitely over the indoor-air budget I would normally allot for such a thing. (I should note that there's a curbside pickup option, but it's only for people particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.) They've been keeping the front doors open the whole time, but that's pretty limited for air exchange. A few of my items didn't make it into the bags, so I had to wait around while volunteers checked the coolers several times over. And finally I had to go to the live market out back to pick up the items directly from the vendors. I think next time I'm going to skip pick-up and just wait in line outdoors.
Again, I'm thrilled that we have this market! And I'm not totally sure what I would change about the process to make it go better. But I wanted to follow up from my previous post so that people had realistic expectations.