By Meaghan Latella
You have one last chance to buy locally produced food from the Lexington Farmer’s Market next Wednesday. This last day of the weekly market until spring is a good time to add a local harvest to your Thanksgiving feast the next day.
Since April, the market’s 15 vendors have set up their displays every Wednesday to sell their vegetables, fruits, meats, jams and baked goods. All of the food and products sold at the market are grown sustainably, without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides or hormones.
Just before the market opens at 8 a.m., customers can see Mitch Wapner, the manager of the market, carefully organizing his display of homemade jams and butters. Originally from New York City, Wapner and his wife are both retired veterinarians. They practiced in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania before moving to Lexington in 2000 to begin their new lives.
Their farm is called “Paradox Farm.” Wapner explained that the name is a play-on-words, because he and his wife are a “pair of doctors.” Although fond of his time spent living in the North, Wapner always knew he would end up in the South.
“I dreamed of owning a farm,” he said.
Before opening his own farm, Wapner said he always tried to eat and buy organic and local food. He encourages people to eat organically because it is a much healthier lifestyle.
Wapner said he wishes that more businesses would buy from local farmers. He said that Brix and The Red Hen, two popular restaurants in downtown Lexington, are very loyal to him and the other farmers in the area. He said that both eateries, particularly Brix, buy locally “as much as possible.”
The two colleges in Lexington, Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, do not support local farmers as much as the vendors at the market would like. Wapner said that he and other farmers routinely try to persuade the colleges to buy locally, but their efforts typically prove unsuccessful.
“Educating them [about why they should buy locally] is a slow and painful process,” said Wapner.
Don Huffman, a vendor at the market and owner of Fox Ridge Farm, also believes that the support for locally produced goods is lacking. He sees only benefits from eating organic, locally grown food.
“For one thing, it saves fuel,” said Huffman. He also said that the quality of taste is noticeably better, and there are no artificial or surprise ingredients added to anything grown or raised locally. “You know what you’re getting,” he said.
Unlike Wapner, Huffman grew up in Rockbridge County. He said that when he was a child, his grandmother owned a farm and she taught him much about the industry.
Huffman worked at a nearby nuclear power plant before retiring in 2007. Since retiring, he has turned to farming full time.
“Most of what I make, I spend on my wife,” said Huffman, laughing. “But she helps out too.”
He does not plan to farm for much longer because, he says, it is hard work. For now though, he will continue growing fruits, vegetables, and making homemade honey and jelly.
The market will convene once right before Christmas for its “Winter Holiday Market” on Dec. 11, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will be held at the Washington and Lee Pavilion, and vendors will be selling wreaths, holiday-themed crafts, winter vegetables, and more.
The market is located in the city-owned parking lot behind the Southern Inn restaurant. It meets from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Many of the vendors also sell their goods at the Rockbridge Farmer’s Market, which is held at the Virginia Horse Center. The Rockbridge Farmer’s Market held its last meeting of the year two weeks ago, but will also reopen in the spring.