By Karen Majewicz
Featured Item: National Farmers Market Directory
Spring has arrived and local farmers markets will soon be opening up in many parts of the country.
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| Image caption: Midtown Farmers Market handpainted sign. |
Looking for a local selection of produce? Planning a road trip and don’t want to deal with grocery stores? Check out the National Farmers Market Directory, which is available as a spatial dataset, a downloadable CSV, or a queryable web service. The attribute data includes the name, location, seasonal dates, and hours of operation. It also notes what kind of food is available, including the following categories:
Interesting tidbits:
- Organic
- Baked goods
- Cheese
- Crafts
- Flowers
- Eggs
- Seafood
- Herbs
- Vegetables
- Honey
- Jams
- Maple
- Meat
- Nursery
- Nuts
- Plants
- Poultry
- Prepared
- Soap
- Trees
- Wine
- Coffee
- Beans
- Fruits
- Grains
- Juices
- Mushrooms
- Pet Food
- Tofu
- Wild Harvested
- Several states in the Big Ten region have the most farmers markets in the country. The populous states of California (756) and New York (672) are #1 and #2, but the next states are Michigan (342), Ohio, (340), and Illinois (337). Wisconsin (312) and Pennsylvania (308) are in the top 10 as well.
- The metadata for this dataset was pulled from the Esri Coronavirus Hub. Tracking the locations of grocery sources has been part of public health assessments during the pandemic.
- The dataset was created by the Urban Observatory, a project by Richard Saul Wurman, Radical Media, and Esri that creates an interactive museum experience that uses digital maps and the power of geospatial analysis to bring important and interesting data collected about our cities to life.
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| Screenshot of farmers markets in Minneapolis, MN |