Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market

My partner and I shopped at the Farmers Market Saturday morning, buying some tomatoes (despite the tomato blight) and other vegetables. We've been to the Bloomington market throughout the summer and have returned mostly for the vegetables and the honey.

While at the market, walking around the Old Courthouse at the market, I got to thinking about why I liked this particular market. What's been amazing to me is just how many organic farms are in operation around Bloomington-Normal. By way of comparison I thought of other farmers market experiences. I went to the Madison, Wisconsin farmers market only a few times and so can't remember if the farmers selling there were mostly local. The farmers markets in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) sometimes seemed bogus. Not all the time, yet we remember visiting some markets that appeared like there were importing vegetables from California! In contrast, the market here has numerous farms within 10-25 miles of the city. That probably isn't surprising, though, since we have such rich farmland so close to the city area.