My days of being a Moscow resident are waning.  I, like many, pass through this town wishing I could stay, but due to a variety of circumstances must move on.  As I begin to think of my life in a new community, I begin to evaluate Moscow’s appeal.  It’s hard to put into words, but if I were to try, I would use words like community, progressive, active, healthy and agricultural. 

The history of Moscow’s Saturday Farmers’ Market is one such story that demonstrates Moscow’s long-standing commitment to its community.  None other than the Moscow Food Co-op started the Farmers’ Market in their parking lot and adjacent sidewalk.  Back then, the Food Co-op was located on the corner of 4^th and Washington and was managed by three paid coordinators.  Otherwise, volunteer laborers did the remaining work at the Food Co-op. 

The Moscow Farmer’s Market began in the mid ‘70s and was very informal.  Only farmers were allowed to sell their locally grown food.  In fact, the early Farmers’ Market was similar to our current Tuesday Growers’ Market, but without the music or barbeque.  At no cost, farmers were able to show up with their produce and sell out of the back of their pickup trucks.  Early on, only about five or six farmers attended, with many of them coming from the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, Juliaetta and Kendrick. 

As simple as this scenario seems, Moscow, and especially the Moscow Food Co-op, were breaking new ground.  In the mid-‘70s, few communities outside of large metropolitan areas had farmers’ markets.  Not to mention, during the mid-‘70s the federal government told farms to “Get big, or get out.”  So small produce farmers were not as prevalent as they were 2 years prior, or even now.  At this time, growers at farmers’ markets were expected to have cheaper produce than what one could find at grocery stores.  Grocery stores felt their produce departments would suffer as a result, thus were not supportive of farmers’ markets in general.  Such sentiments are less prevalent now, as farmers’ markets have become successful ways to revitalize a downtown or a small community, to the benefit of local grocers. 

As the Moscow Farmers’ Market became successful, the Moscow Food Co-op recognized that their parking lot and sidewalk were not the ideal place for an event where the community would come to forage for locally grown produce and shoot the breeze about schools, families, and the government.  They began to search for new places to have the market.  In June of 1976, representatives from the Food Co-op went to the Moscow City Council and requested that the Farmers’ Market be moved to the area between Friendship Square and Jackson Street (the current location of the Farmer’s Market).  They also requested that the Market be an all day event on Fridays.  At this time, the City Council had recently acquired the old Post Office (the current City Hall building), and City Council members agreed the parking lot behind the old Post Office would be a better spot for the Market.  The Council also decided that Saturday would be better than Friday.  The finer details of the Market were postponed for committee work, so it wasn’t until the summer of 1978 that the Farmers’ Market actually moved to the parking lot behind the old Post Office. 

A couple of years after the decision to move the Farmers’ Market to the old Post Office, the city of Moscow received a couple of sizeable grants from the Federal government to revitalize downtown.  With the funds, downtown Moscow was given a facelift in 1980, with new lights, crosswalks, trees, a playground and our lovely fountain.  About the same time, the City Council created the Moscow Arts Commission.  So with a little foresight and a lot of hard work, the Moscow Arts Commission became the administrator of the Moscow Farmers’ Market.  With this undertaking, the market began to encourage artists, musicians and activists to take part in the market in addition to the farmers.  With the increased attention being placed on Friendship Square, the city agreed to have the Farmers’ Market in its current spot. 

This certainly isn’t the whole, or the end, of the story.  The story is much fuller and continues on with new faces and old alike, always changing and evolving to make our home a little better tomorrow than it is today.  I hope the importance of telling stories and being a participant in the story continues in Moscow, and teaches other passer-bys like myself to learn and spread Moscow’s character to other communities perhaps in need of a little facelift.

A big thanks to David Cook, Dorothy MacEarchern Lawhead, and Linda Pall for passing some of Moscow’s history on to the rest of us.