Tent Talk, the farmers market podcast
Whether you’re a farmers market manager, a farmer or food maker selling at farmers markets, a policy maker or market supplier, Tent Talk is the podcast for you!
How to listen to Tent Talk
Stream our most recent episodes below or find Tent Talk wherever you regularly get your podcasts. With a new episode every Monday, Tent Talk brings you new farmers market knowledge on a weekly basis. There is so much that goes into farmers markets, and so many interesting people involved, we will never run out of material!
Search by keyword, topic or guest to find the episode you’re looking for!
Episode 319: Staff Evaluations
Whether you're a farmer, maker or market manager, if you have a team, providing them with feedback will make their work life and yours better. It doesn't have to be awkward or uncomfortable to discuss workplace performance.
Episode 317: Fee Here Now: Collecting Market Rent
Bookkeeping is yet another of the many hats that farmers market managers wear. There are so many formulas for setting space rent at markets and, especially post-Covid, a whole variety of ways to manage calculating and actually collecting those fees.
Episode 313: Ask The Pros!
It's another Ask the Pros episode this week, with a mix of topics based on listener questions. We always find that discussing one person's question helps others that are pondering some variation of the same thing. There's nothing quite like the hive mind.
Episode 312: 4th Quarter Team Work
The fourth quarter rolls around every year, but somehow we often forget what to do to prepare for it. Listen in as we chat about moving past the September slump. We're looking forward and making plans to make the upcoming season more productive and less stressful. How are you getting ahead of things?
Episode 306: Free Speech at Farmers Markets with Wendy Chen and Lihlani Nelson
With election season upon us, managing free speech issues at farmers markets is top of mind. This week we're chatting with Wendy Chen, of the Center for Agricultural and Food Systems at Vermont Law School for a quick update on court decisions that might affect how you manage free speech at your market. And we're spotlighting an episode originally broadcast in 2021, with Lihlani Nelson, also of Vermont Law School, home of the Farmers market Legal Toolkit.
Episode 301: Wendy Chen: Volunteering to Keep it Legal
Volunteers are the lifeblood of many farmers markets and we know that even market managers are sometimes labeled as volunteers. That labor of love is admirable. Is it legal? That depends, and it's complicated. Wendy Chen stopped in to discuss the answers to these questions and more.
Episode 300: Celebrating 300 Episodes of Tent Talk
It's hard to believe that we've produced 300 episodes of Tent Talk, the farmers market podcast, since we started almost five years ago. You'd think we might run out of things to talk about, but nope! There are so many ideas to explore, questions to ponder, and issues to delve into.
Episode 294: Welcome Back to Tent Talk
We’re baaaaack! Did you miss us? After our short recording hiatus, listen in to find out where we’ve been and where we’re growing next.🌱 It’s been a busy spring, and we’ve got a lot cookin’ over here.
Episode 292: Encore Episode: Promotional Vendors at Your Service
Would you get a chiropractic adjustment or purchase a time share at the grocery store? If you answered no, then why would you expect to find those services at the farmers market? This week on Tent Talk we discuss the pros and cons of hosting service providers and informational/promotional booths at your farmers market.
Episode 291: Encore Episode: Pirate Vendors
Pirate vendors, aargh! No, we’re not talking about buccaneers that sail the seven seas, we’re talking about sellers and solicitors that set up in or around a farmers market as unofficial vendors. Though usually well-intentioned, hawkers, buskers, petitioners, and street vendors can confuse shoppers about where and when the actual farmers market begins, encroach on sales, and could potentially be a liability for farmers market operators.
Episode 290: Encore Episode: Make Your Farmers Market Opening Grand
Opening a new farmers market or starting a new season at an existing one is exciting. A lot goes into getting ready to launch, and building up to a truly grand opening. Building awareness and anticipation for both the community and your family of farmers and vendors means a busy opening day. Planning for the natural cycles of a new market will keep everyone's enthusiasm and commitment strong.
Episode 289: Encore Episode: Communicate with your Market Community
Communicating with your farmers market community can take a lot of forms nowadays. Do you send emailed vendor advisories? Use a private Facebook or Instagram group? Smoke signals or carrier pigeons, maybe? One way or another it's important for farmers, vendors and managers that everyone stays in the loop. In this episode Catt and Brijet and Justine are joined by market directors Gina Johnson from Madison, Illinois, and Rebecah Boynton from Nashville, Tennessee.
Episode 285: Live From InTents 2024
Our Live from the InTents Conference episode has become an annual tradition, and it's one of our favorites every year. Tent Talk producer Leandra Hayes sat down with conference attendees and asked them to share the best part of their market day. They made us laugh, and cry and sometimes say, "What the heck?"
Episode 284: Moving Your Market
Moving a market is not as simple as scooting a tent or two down the street (not that scooting any tents is without drama.) Sometimes you lose part of your site to a construction project, sometimes a conflicting annual event happens and you have to move the entire market for a day. Finding a new site that can accommodate an established event is a puzzle.
Episode 283: Best of Tent Talk: Application Excavation
Are you a farmer or small food business trying to navigate finding spaces to sell at farmers markets? Are you a farmers market manager buried in application emails and trying to find the perfect needles in that haystack? In this episode we're chatting about how we process applications for our markets and approaches used by some of our fellow market managers.