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 321: James Grevious: Rebel Courses
This week we caught up with James Grevious of Rebel Marketplace in Aurora, Colorado. Since he last joined us on Tent Talk, he’s been addressing challenges around establishing a consistent location and a sustainable business model. Staying rebellious, he continues to create neighborhood food security with a hyper local farmers market.
Episode 320: Youth in the Booth
Inviting young people to vend at your farmers market can foster a new generation of market entrepreneurs and delight your community.
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 314: Peter Henry: Easing Farmers' Labor Pains
While working for a cheese maker at New York City farmers markets, Peter Henry started thinking about ways producers could expand their reach and increase efficiencies. Now, Ten by Ten Logistics serves more than a dozen farmers at markets throughout New York. Listen in to hear what kinds of coordination help farmers sell at more markets and still have time to farm.
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 311: Every Week or Once a Year : Patricia and Brett Keller on Event Management Skills
Managing a farmers market is just like managing a craft fair or fall festival, right? Yes. And no. There are similarities and there are big differences between coordinating vendors on a weekly basis and once a year. When experienced annual event managers Patricia and Brett Keller took over a local farmers market after the sudden departure of its founding manager, they learned a few things.
Episode 310: Transforming Communities: The Power and Potential of Farmers Markets with Catt Fields-White
This week we're sharing something a little bit different: a podcast episode where Catt Fields White is the featured guest. Enjoy this conversation from the Fresh Taste podcast about the importance of supporting local farmers, small businesses and of course farmers' markets.
Episode 309: Giving Away the Farm: Market Discounts and Donations
Market participants are a generous bunch, so how do you make sure your farmers and vendors don't give away the farm, so to speak? Keeping your heart and your business mind aligned is important to keep your whole market family financially healthy.
Episode 308: Ashley Colpaart: Prepping Partnership: Farmers Markets and Shared Kitchens
When The Food Corridor offered a Shared Kitchen-101 workshop at the 2023 InTents Conference, it was a sell out. It's no wonder. In a survey of food businesses operating out of shared kitchens, farmers markets were the most commonly used sales channels, with over 50% responding that they sell at one or more farmers markets.
Episode 302: InTents Conference Request For Proposals Announcement
We're about to share so much news about 2025's InTents: the National Farmers Market Conference. Today, we're starting with the announcement that the Request for Proposals opens in just a few days. We're adding a special farmer and vendor track in 2025, so possibilities abound.
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 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.
Episode 278: Hatching New Vendor Businesses
How can talented food makers learn to be successful farmers market vendors? In this week's episode of Tent Talk we're chatting about vendor education. Being passionate about your product is important; being fully prepared will increase sales and reduce stress. That makes small businesses enduring.
Episode 277: Chef Saeed is on Fire
Hot sauce is a fast growing category at our farmers markets nowadays, and Chef Saeed is on fire with his fermented sauces featuring unique flavor combinations. It's not just the taste that makes a food business successful though.