By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“Shop. Eat. Repeat.” That is a nice, simple set of instructions, and so easy that even I could follow them. Those words have become the slogan of a new coalition of farmers markets which is marketing local goods in northeast Kansas.

Kathy Youngquist is a volunteer with the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market, part of a new coalition called Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley. Kathy is from Prairie Village originally. She went to the University of Kansas, did graduate work and met and married Eric Youngquist. They moved to Perry, where she took a position with First State Bank & Trust and became interested in farmers markets.

In 2006, her husband Eric and a group of volunteers created the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market. Eric volunteered as market manager. Local producers brought in products to share. The weekly market now operates at the corner of a main road to Lake Perry, which attracts visitors going to the lake in addition to local customers.

“We want to support local foods and local growers,” Kathy said. The oldest farmers market in Kansas is in Lawrence. “We haven’t been going as long as that market, so ours is smaller which makes it a little bit easier for a person who is just starting to try it,” Kathy said. “My husband compares our market to an incubator for small businesses.”

For example, one person started bringing baked goods to the Perry-Lecompton Farmers Market. She expanded her business over time and now sells in local grocery stores. Another person started selling soaps at the market and now sells them to businesses as gifts for their customers during the holidays.

The market’s website is www.perrylecomptonfarmersmarket.com.

The Perry-Lecompton school district reaches into both Jefferson and Douglas counties, which expands their connections. Douglas County formed the first Food Policy Council in the state, chaired by Marlin Bates, who was then an extension agent for K-State Research and Extension – Douglas County. Bates is now director of that office. That council then received a USDA farmers market promotion grant which led to several recommendations, including a suggestion that the markets work together to increase their customer bases.

“The leaders of each of the farmers markets in the Douglas County region got together to see how we could support each other,” Kathy said. Between them, there is literally a farmers market open almost every night of the week.

In addition to the original downtown Lawrence market, there is one at the Clinton Parkway Nursery and a year-round market at Cottin’s Hardware store. That one moves indoors during the winter months. There are also farmers markets at more rural locations such as Eudora and Perry-Lecompton. Perry has a population of 929 and Lecompton has a population of 637 people. Now, that’s rural.

“We recognized that we could have greater advertising power by working together,” Kathy said. In March 2017, they joined in a collaboration called Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley. Working with the visitors bureau called Unmistakably Lawrence, a new website was created which promotes all six of the farmers markets along this part of the Kansas River valley. The website is www.fmkawvalley.org. It uses the marketing theme: Shop. Eat. Repeat.

“We’re all still independent markets, but as a group, we can be stronger,” Kathy said. “It’s nice to share ideas and not have to re-create the wheel.” The shared marketing effort has helped increase customers and vendors. “We’ve been able to nearly double market attendance.”

Extension played a pivotal role in creating the new coalition of farmers markets. “We’ve been really appreciative of the extension office and the Douglas County Food Policy Council Grant,” Kathy said.

The new website features informational videos plus specifics on the time, location, and focus of each market. For example, Perry-Lecompton might be more practical for start-up businesses, while the downtown Lawrence market includes local artists, musicians, and community groups.

We salute Kathy Youngquist and all those involved with Farmers Markets of Kaw Valley for making a difference by working together to promote local foods and growers, while benefitting consumers with fresh products and an improved local economy. I plan to follow their instructions: Shop. Eat. Repeat.

We live in an older part of Hays, next to a draw filled with trees. For many years, each morning, my wife, and then in the evenings my wife and I, have walked around that draw, always with a dog in tow. We have watched its ebbs and flows, particularly the flows when it occasionally it floods. We have walked many dogs there, and cannot keep from remembering them as we take that walk. The neighborhood children grew from tots to teenagers playing in that draw. My three sons, though now in their late 20s to early 30s, still return to its shade and comfortable protection when they come home.

Just a couple of years ago, we discovered a beehive in the fork of an elm tree in that draw. I do not know how long it had been there; we just noticed it one day. It was right by the road near a small bridge.
My wife chuckled at me many times because I always walked up to the tree as we walked by. I could smell the sweet smell. I would put my ear to the tree and hear the buzzing. The bees never panicked and just flew around me quietly. They never stung me and I never bothered them. I would just watch the bees coming and going. On hot days, many bees would gather on one side of the crack in the tree, fanning their wings, I suppose, to create a breeze in the hive.

The hive was built in a widening crack coming down the elm tree. Each time it stormed, I was afraid to go by the tree, for fear of it having split in half, destroying the bees’ home and perhaps killing many of them.
Winter would come. I was sure they would leave; instead, they would hunker down only to pop out of the tree at the first sign of warm weather.

Every few months, the crack seemed to grow wider. I could see deeper and deeper into the bees’ private nest, as the tree succumbed to wind and gravity.

We made it through this summer, and September greeted us. At my home, only a couple blocks away, the bees were busy gathering nectar from our garden, returning to the elm in preparation for winter. I was hoping they could make it through another winter.

On a recent morning, my wife went to work and called me from her car. The tree was being cut down. She was upset that I did not know what to do or say.

My middle son walked down to the tree that evening, now spread along the ground. When he returned, I could tell he felt I should have done something.

Later in the evening, I took my dog and our neighbor’s dog for a walk. The area around the tree was roped off. I felt like I needed to be near the tree so I entered the roped off area. I could tell from the logs on the ground that the tree had really been in poor health. It needed to come down before it fell unexpectedly on someone.

Yet, it was part of the draw and home to the bees. A few of the bees buzzed around the barren space, where some honeycomb must have fallen. I suspect that the hive had been professionally moved before the tree was cut down, and I hoped that the hive was in a better, new place. However, it was a sad scene for me.

I really felt like we had lost something close to us. Yes, it was just an old elm tree and some bees, but they were part of us, and I like to think that we were part of them.

Sometimes the simplest things can be important to us, but just because something is simple does not mean it is not important.

The night of the falling of the tree, I could not sleep so instead I got up and wrote this article.

It is funny how we can attach ourselves to something, and mourn its passing. Perhaps it is a metaphor for losing friends or family. It just happens and we can do little to control the inevitable. I do not know what it means, but the bee tree will forever be etched in my memory.

Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.