Cream of the Crop

The Orleans Farmers' Market celebrates 30 years of connecting local farmers, local food, and local communities.

What is the Orleans Farmers' Market celebrating?

06 September 2024 – ORLEANS, MA – Thirty years ago Orleans Farmers’ Market started out with 10 vendors. It has grown to 40 farmers offering their goods to the local public, every Saturday, year-round.

What value does local food bring?

Locally produced food is important for its freshness, quality, and nutrition, say Orleans Farmers' President Gretel Norgeot. She also points out that eating local also plays a role in combating climate change by minimizing trucking and transportation. Eating locally grown food is not only healthy and tasty - but also helps the planet, she said.

What happens at the Orleans' Farmers Market?

Today, the market has as many as 40 vendors and runs year-round on Saturday mornings, outside in the summer and inside from December to April. The market features in-season fruit and vegetables, fish and scallops, herbs and flowers, and locally raised meat. Bakeries also bring bread and sweet treats.

Is there a farming history on Cape Cod?

Much has changed on Cape Cod since that first Orleans Farmers’ Market.  Cape Cod had a history of agriculture, with acres and acres of strawberries ... turnips from Eastham ... asparagus ... corn ... along with fishing and shellfishing. As the land turned from farms to other uses, awareness of local food began to wane as did acres used for food production.

The past three decades have also brought increased herbicide and pesticide use, and a loss of honeybees and pollinators, as well as changes in the growing season brought by climate change, noted Norgeot.

How many farms are on Cape Cod today?

Despite it all, farming continues on Cape Cod but farm size and demographics have changed. Between 2017 to 2022 nine new farms opened, although acres in production dropped 40 percent. Approximately one-third of the Cape's farmers are women.  Today the Cape has 349 land farms and 241 aquaculture farm, which represent seven percent of the Massachusetts' farm revenue.