Five shades of green

Twenty-five tables set up in a U-shape usher customers through the vendors. A schnauzer licks up a fallen strawberry near one stand. A vendor selling mallets tests one out on a wind chime sold by another. A family of three tastes homemade jam, and a vendor lobbies everyone to sample a slice of his cheese.

It's the scene from a Little Rock farmers market. While the summer heats up and the prospects of going outside to do things can dwindle, an exception is the early morning farmers market scene. There are several different farmers markets in and near Little Rock. We took a look at five metro area farmers markets to compare.

Bernice Garden Farmers Market

That opening scene -- taking place at the pavilion at the corner of Little Rock's Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive and Main Street -- bustles with chatter on a muggy Sunday morning as Bo Bennett, marketing director of the Bernice Garden Farmers Market, watches from the sidewalk. In a way, it's formalized chaos. For Bennett, it's beauty.

"This is the best farmers market," Bennett says. His argument: The market features locally grown food, it caters to new farmers,

it's community-driven, and again, it's local.

"When you're buying whatever you're buying here, you're talking to the actual grower," Bennett says of produce such as strawberries, cabbage, tomatoes, blackberries, beets.

The market has been at this location in SoMa for four years and is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m on Sundays -- an unusual time slot, because most farmers markets open early on Saturdays. But it is all purposeful; it sets this market apart, Bennett says, adding it helps attract customers to the area.

For example, neighboring Boulevard Bread Co. is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the farmers market season and closed on Sundays during the off season, according to employee Alex Flanders.

Bennett says this market is designed to break down stereotypes. The perception, he says, is that farmers markets are elitist and only for the snobs: "And that's just not true."

The Bernice market accepts food stamps as payment, and customers can also sign up to receive food stamps at the market. Bennett says this is an attempt to make the market more culturally diverse, and to give those who may not have money to spare the chance to eat local produce.

Argenta Farmers Market

The assortment of smells at the Argenta Farmers Market hits visitors before anything. Lotions and soaps. Cheese. Honey. Flowers.

Tented truck beds line the market at 520 Main St. in North Little Rock. It's not the only market in the state that claims to be a certified farmers market, but according to co-founder, executive director and marketing manager Barbara Armstrong, it might be the strictest.

"Our rule here is that if you didn't grow it, you can't sell it," Armstrong says. "I physically go each year and visit the farmers and go through their crops with them to make sure they're growing what they bring to the market."

Armstrong and the rest of the farmers in Argenta bound together in 2008 to create this market for a specific reason: for the farmers to take back farmers markets.

"We were in competition with people who claimed to be farmers when in fact they would go to the local warehouses and take food that was rejected by Kroger and then would bring it to the market and put up a sign and sell it. And we couldn't compete with that -- it got out of control," Armstrong says.

Now, on Saturdays -- 7 a.m. to noon from March through October every year -- genuine farmers from around Arkansas can be found at the corner of Sixth and Main in North Little Rock, selling their collections of tomatoes, cheese and berries. So far, Armstrong says, the success has led to some farmers expanding their businesses.

"Our customers are there although there are other markets on the same day. We feel like we're special," Armstrong says. "For true small-time farmers, like myself, this is what we do. This is what we do for a living. And it's great."

Little Rock Farmers Market

Looking at the Little Rock Farmers Market in downtown's River Market from left to right, it moves from normal to a tad absurd. It begins with the usual: tomatoes, cucumbers, 3-foot-tall sunflowers, blueberries, jam and watermelons. Then there's the the right side: women's leggings, bamboo crafts, women's dresses and Little Rock tourist T-shirts.

Don Ferneau's booth sits in the middle, positioned right where it should be -- between the absurd and the normal. He's selling spices. Specifically, barbecue seasoning. Good for anything, he says. Pork, steak, vegetables, anything.

He sits and watches as the seemingly endless stream of Tuesday morning shoppers shuffles by. He doesn't call out or solicit customers -- he just leans back in his tan director's chair and waits.

Buyers can find his spices, simply called Ferneau's, at a few stores around Little Rock. His son, Donnie, uses it at his restaurant, Good Food by Ferneau in North Little Rock. But from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Tuesday and Saturday, Don mans his sales booth at the River Market pavilions, 400 President Clinton Ave.

The market serves as half-farmers market, half-tourist attraction. More than 50 vendors participate, including small- and large-scale farmers. It also features quite a few people like Don, just there to make a few bucks with their specialty items.

Don has been retired for 14 years and been selling his spices here for the last 11. Every week he sets up a chair -- his spices all in a row -- and hands out business cards to customers for his son's restaurant, trying to get a few sales. But mostly he waits.

Hillcrest Farmers Market

From strawberries and tomatoes to corn and pumpkins, the Hillcrest Farmers Market is a year-round market allowing visitors to watch the seasons change with the produce.

Whether it's 40 degrees and cloudy or 90 degrees and humid, the market at 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Hillcrest is open Saturdays (7 a.m. in summer, 8 a.m. in winter) and showcases about 30 vendors.

"We may have the distinction of the only year-round market in the state," says Carolyn Staley, the Hillcrest market communications manager. "That's what the farmers have told me and I'm not aware of another one."

The market, which is owned and operated by the Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, is in its sixth year, and was originally opened to serve as a platform for the church to meet the neighbors, Staley says.

"We saw them walking and strolling by and we were sure they didn't know who we were and so we said, 'Let's set up on the front lawn' and they started stopping by," Staley says.

Soon the market grew from six to almost 30 vendors, and the farmers working the tables pushed for something different.

"Farmers encouraged us to [be open throughout the year] so they could still have a livelihood during the winter months," Staley says. "And so we did, and they grow wonderfully through the winter."

Farmers come from small and large farms from Jacksonville, Fayetteville and around the Little Rock area. Saturday mornings at the market feature music, pamphlets about the surrounding area and food trucks.

"It's just a real, ton of fun event every Saturday morning," Staley says.

Westover Hills Farmers Market

Tucked in the quiet Heights neighborhood off Cantrell Road, the Westover Hills Farmers Market bustles on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. Women in gardening hats hold dog leashes with one hand and children's hands in the other as they peruse the selection of 15 or so tents.

The market, at 6400 Kavanaugh Blvd., moves at a much slower pace than the others. Vendors talk to one another as customers do the same -- mingling more like a community get-together rather than just a place to get tomatoes.

The selection at the Westover Hills is more organic. Not organic -- not in the literal sense, but in the Whole Foods sense. Hummus with chips, jam, squash, onions and handmade duck calls surround the customers in the small parking lot across the street from Westover Hills Presbyterian Church. Though it is named after the church across the street, the farmers market is open to the public every Tuesday afternoon from 4 to 7 p.m. from the beginning of May until the end of September.

It seems to be a hidden gem, unless the green sign off Cantrell with an arrow saying "Farmers Market this way" catches your eye. But the market has been there for about four years, says Pastor Frank LeBlanc, and is a prime spot for those looking for fresh produce right after work on Tuesday.

"We talked to the farmers and they were looking for a midweek market," says marketing director Sid McCollum. "When they go to markets on Saturdays, they don't sell everything, and they don't want to wait until the next Saturday, so now they have a midweek place to go."

The Tuesday market appeases the farmers, McCollum says, but it also brings the community together: "We felt like people didn't want to go downtown to buy stuff in the morning and keep [it] in the car or office all day, so they can stop by our place on the way home."

Style on 06/16/2015