What’s the Big Deal with Wind at Farmers Markets?

I had an unexpected Saturday morning off today because the Mineral Farmers Market was cancelled due to the risk of high winds.

You might be wondering what’s the big deal about wind at farmers market.

A few years ago my son Daniel and I were vending at our first ever farmers market. A storm was approaching, and the market managers were watching the radar, but it seemed like the market would be well over before the storm would hit.

Daniel at our very first farmers market.

It was May 2021, nothing was blooming yet (it was our first year flower farming) so we brought flower seedlings.

Out of nowhere (what we now assume was) an updraft hit the market. With nearly no warning tents were in the air, tables were flying, and the vendors goods were slamming into the ground.

The chaos only lasted a few moments but that was all that it took for major damage to be done.

The market manager ended up with a massive concussion, a market goer broke her leg, and a car window was smashed, all from falling tents and debris.

Despite the lightning, thunder, and rain the market customers stayed and helped everyone clean and pack up. Farmers markets customers are the best. ♥️

The aftermath.

Our table flipped and the seedlings went everywhere. Fortunately, this was the extent of our loss.

Let me back up and explain the behind the scenes of a farmers market. As you likely know, farmers markets are made up of mobile vendors, there for a set amount of time, and operating with the cover of temporary, portable tents.

Most markets require the tents to be staked, or held down with weights. But ultimately tents are sails, and and even the heaviest weights can’t keep a tent on the ground in heavy and unpredictable winds.

Daniel and me (Emily), on the afternoon of the storm May 2021.

Fresh faced an innocent, having no clue about what this first market would hold.

It felt like the wind came out of nowhere. We were making an educated decision to stay open, because the storm was still a ways a way. And then with no warning it was not at all okay.

The experience was traumatizing. I have a new appreciation for the power of the wind.

That night Daniel and I comforted ourselves by buying expensive fillable tent weights, and going down a research rabbit hole including searches like “heaviest substances in the world”. We had fantasies of filling the tent weights with lead. Take that, WIND!

In the years since every time the wind blows, shaking our tent, or knocking a sign over we shudder a little, and compulsively grip a leg of the tent.

And that’s the tricky thing: staying open during a possible windstorm will probably be okay. But when it’s not it the consequences can be catastrophic.