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23 Sep Wed 2009

Love Your Winning Farmers Markets

Tensions ran high in at least five communities last Thursday, the final day of the "Love Your Farmers Market" contest, sponsored by LocalHarvest and Care2. After weeks of impressive campaigning, there was shuffling among the top placeholders even on the last day of the contest. When I spoke with manager of the Fernandina Beach market, Jan Smith, on Wednesday, her market was in third place. She had been campaigning all summer, but was not letting up the pressure. Meanwhile, up in Carrboro, NC, market manager Sarah Blacklin had just been on the radio, reminding would-be voters that the contest was about to end.

Winner of the $5,000 first prize was none other than Flint Farmers' Market in Flint, MI, with a strong showing of support at 6,083 votes. Congratulations to all top five vote getters, and to to the markets who won the weekly drawing prizes of $250!

  • First Place: Flint Farmers’ Market, Flint, MI
  • Second Place: Fernandina Farmers Market, Fernandina Beach, FL
  • Third Place: Carrboro Farmers’ Market, Carrboro, NC
  • Fourth Place: Midtown Farmers’ Market, Minneapolis, MN
  • Fifth Place: Market Square Farmers’ Market, Knoxville, TN

The interesting thing about how this contest turned out is that the top three markets are each so different. Our contest winners page includes a description of each market, its strategies for winning this contest, and the community it serves. Read more about them!

All told, 98,147 people cast a vote in this contest, and with their vote nearly 65,000 people posted a short review of their favorite market on LocalHarvest. We would like to express our gratitude to Care2.com for partnering with us on this contest, and for putting together such a fantastic package of prizes.

Speaking of contests, this is the last month of our "Find the Missing CSAs" contest. We are soliciting readers' support in finding CSAs that are not yet listed in our database. The person who submits the most new (to us) CSAs will win a $100 gift certificate to the LocalHarvest catalog. Contest ends September 30. We appreciate your help in rounding out our national directory!

As always, take good care and eat well,

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

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Guillermo
07:00 PM CDT
 
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