Business Community
Female farmers look to grow community (and grow their businesses) with co-operative booth at market
A booth at a farmer’s market is a pretty small piece of real estate. But it can feel like a huge commitment for small farmers.
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Just trucking your gear to the market every week is a challenge, especially for people for whom farming is a side-hustle. Various license and bureaucratic forms must be in order. Simply having something to sell every week is no minor concern for small farms, particularly early in the season.
Shuttle bus: A shuttle bus will take customers to and from the 2025 farmers market. Click here for information.
Co-op booth
A group called the Peninsula Female Farmers Network is testing out a solution this summer: A co-operative booth, at which 18 local farms will sell goods on a rotating basis during the 15-week Waterfront Farmer’s Market season.
The co-op booth will debut at the first market of the 2025 summer: from 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at Skansie Brothers Park on Harborview Drive. Click here for more details on the 2025 market season.
The booth gives smaller operations involved in the Female Farmers Network a chance to dip their toes into the farmers market pool, without feeling the pressure of an every-week commitment.
“I might not be able to have the time to go down every week,” said Christie Tackett of Moon Mountain Farms on the Key Peninsula. Tackett, a member of the Peninsula Female Farmers Network, helped organize the co-op booth.
“But going down once a month (for instance)? That I can do. And it provides me the opportunity to meet new customers and talk about my CSA. It helps the farmers to build those relationships.”
The Peninsula Female Farmers Network gathers monthly at a member farm for a potluck and a program. This summer, 18 members of the network will sell goods as part of a co-op booth at the Gig Harbor Watefront Farmers Market. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Rose
Female Farmers Network
The co-op booth idea grew out of a revived Peninsula Female Farmers Network.
Local farmers started the network in 2017, but it went dormant during COVID. Members rejuvenated the group just last November.
The network gives women farmers from the Gig Harbor, Key and Kitsap peninsulas a chance to connect, learn and share fellowship. The idea is to “create community around female farming,” said Kathleen Rose of WillaBella Farm on Point Fosdick.
About 90 female farmers from three counties — Pierce, Mason and Kitsap — are involved now. Many of them are too small to support a farmer’s market booth on their own. Or too busy.
“All of us are doing other things,” Rose said. “I have a farm stand, a lot of us have CSAs or do agri-tourism. We just don’t have time to schlep our stuff there every week.”
Opening day of the Gig Harbor Waterfront Farmers Market on June 6, 2024. Photo by Vince Dice
Rotating farmers
The 18 farmers who joined the co-op booth signed up for which weeks they wanted to sell. Someone will be in the co-op booth for every market, but it won’t be the same people every week. That should keep customers coming back to see what’s new.
Vendors the first week will be Tackett’s Moon Mountain Farm, which primarily sells flowers, and Seabeck peony farmer Vinnocki Farms.
Rose will be on hand Thursday with fun, educational activities for kids. A representative from Food Backpacks 4 Kids will promote its Food 4 All program, which provides information about growing and storing food.
Later in the season, the booth will have more vegetables and fruits. Whatever is for sale there, it will all be local, and all from women-owned farms.
“It’ll change every week,” Rose said. “There won’t be a ton happening in May and June (other than herbs and flowers) but by July and August it’ll be booming. We might have two booths.”
The co-op booth also gives members of the network the chance to help promote one another. If a customers asks a flower farmer where they can get tomatoes, for instance, information about local growers will be available.
“We want them to feel like this is an inspiring opportunity,” Tackett said. “For some, they’ve never done a market before. This could be a great start for them.”
The Peninsula Female Farmers Network gathers monthly at a member farm for a potluck and a program. This summer, 18 members of the network will sell goods as part of a co-op booth at the Gig Harbor Watefront Farmers Market. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Rose