Heidi Ong describes herself as a “flower bartender.” Like a bartender preparing a drink, she ties up bouquets and sells flowers as she chats up each customer who visits her flower booth at the Green City Market in Lincoln Park each Saturday. She learns about customers’ lives and children, keeping this information ready for the next time she sees them, which allows her to develop relationships with her customers that span decades.
Farmers markets like the Green City Market provide opportunities for vendors to grow their reach and find community across Chicago. By directly interacting with owners rather than just seeing products on the shelves of grocery stores, customers gain a stronger understanding of where products come from and develop relationships with owners.
Ms. Ong, owner of Petals Farm in Huntley, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, began selling her flowers at Green City with her mother in 1992. Since then, she has continued to sustain the relationships her mother created when they began and has made even more.
“I enjoy seeing the satisfaction on people’s faces, just sitting there and watching people, you know, do a little people watching. I’ve seen kids grow up,” Ms. Ong said. “There was one lady that was here, and I did her wedding and I did her baby shower. It becomes an extended family of some sort.”
Kim Smith, owner of Yoberri Gourmet, a frozen yogurt and ice cream shop in Lincoln Park, has been selling her products at the 61st Street Farmers Market since 2014.
“We love the community, love just being a part of different areas of the city and meeting new people,” Ms. Smith said. “Every week it kind of ends up that we’re almost like a place on their map. They stop by the market, they get their goodies, and they move on with their days.”
Abby Shilling, a third-generation owner of Mick Klug Farms, finds the educational aspect of selling products at farmers markets to be important as well. She enjoys educating her customers on the seasonal produce that they sell, like asparagus in the spring and berries in the summer.
“There’s just such an opportunity for education,” Ms. Shilling said, “and I think it’s really important that people know where their food comes from. Farmers markets lend themselves to the opportunity to teach people where their food comes from.”
Since Ms. Shilling sells her products four days a week for eight months a year, dealing with weather has proved challenging for both the farming and selling, as significantly fewer customers attend farmers markets in cold or bad weather.
“I would say, honestly, the biggest challenge of selling in this way is the weather,” Ms. Shilling said. “So not only selling, but also growing it. Mother Nature is our biggest challenge, and it is super challenging to sell outside. We attend this market from April to November, so we’re really dealing with the elements, and I think that’s what makes it the most challenging.”
Ms. Shilling’s father began selling products at farmers markets in 1980, and has passed down the community he found to her — connections that keep her coming back week after week.
Vendors across the city continue returning to farmers markets for not only the business they provide, but more so for the community they find.
“I’ve gone from there and I’ve created relationships with other customers,” Ms. Shilling said. “That kind of close relationship is really meaningful.”
