I would encourage you to buy directly from the farmers as much as you can rather than from the Sparkle and other grocery stores which sell local products.
It means that the farmer makes more money, and it's very important that we keep small local farmers in business.
Logistics...
Sparkle buys from local farmers who only have to truck their produce a few miles AND / OR Sparkle has a buyer at Wednesday's Farmer's Market sale and buys wholesale on the spot.
Roadside stands are quaint, but the real money comes from wholesale operations to Sparkle (good profits for the farmers) or direct to big city (Cleveland / Columbus / Akron / Youngstown) restaurants (GREAT profits for the farmers). Fruit and vegetable farming in this area is developing into a good niche market.
A word about WalMart in Ohio. The Meat Packers union in Ohio had enough clout to prevent WalMart from setting up in-house non-union butcher counters. So, there aren't any. EVERYTHING; fruits, veggies and meats are trucked in from some other place, ususally out-of-state. Amish farmers know they can get a better price for dealing directly with local grocers and the public, so they don't bother with WalMart.
(:raig
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