Market Review: Ann Arbor Farmer Market

Every Saturday from 8am to 3pm Kerrytown in Ann Arbor gets swarmed by people doing everything from protestors seeking signers for various political petitions to hagglers trying to get the best price on a wooden duck doorstop.  From April to October, the crowds are joined and enhanced by plant sellers and searchers.  True, this is not expansive in scale as the legendary Eastern Market, which despite my general avoidance of I find to be an experience all SE Michiganders should give an annual pilgrimage to, well... the Ann Arbor market is just friendlier and easier to handle.  The Ann Arbor Market has the charm and relative calm of our smaller town markets (even though peak Saturdays can often by crowded) with the more exotic availability expected of a larger market.  Plant wise, you can find everything here from heirloom veggies to exotic perennials to native plants.  I have a few favorite vendors which I will visit in individual posts more closely, but I felt that Friday night was a good time to introduce the Saturday morning market. 

Busy, but not insane.  My apologies from the horrid lighting on the shot.

They also have a Wednesday morning and evening scene, which I have been to only once in the dead of winter.  Obviously they did not have a lot in the way of plants available, but you could still get some cold frame greens, seeds, and make a few new friends with the heartier vendors.  If you need a January nursery fix, even this little bit can help quite a bit.

That said, the best time to go looking for plants is May and early June.  The sales, however, continue unabated until August, when some vendors head away for the month. 

For the novice gardener, the Market can be a great place to meet some gardener friends, see what other people are trying (in an effort to both broaden the plant palette and get some ideas about combinations and garden structure), and learn about plant prices.  The best part about going to any market, and this one in particular, however, is the expert help close at hand.  Here you are face-to-face with vendors who usually also happen to be owners and growers and can respond to individual questions immediately.  You also get the advantage of on-hand variety and can walk back more easily to a vendor when you change your mind about not making a purchase; this is much easier than turning the car around after leaving a nursery.

For the experienced gardener, this is just a really fun place to go.  I've found odd things here I never figured I would find outside of a catalog.  The vendors are typically friendly and seem to be in it for the conversation as much as the profit.  If you want to dive head first into the realm of total plant nerd-ness, this is the best venue to do so in short of a conference or society meeting. 

For both types of gardeners, and non-gardeners, it offers to the jewel that is Kerrytown, full of bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants (including Zingermann's Deli, which among other treats has some of the best Root Beer on the planet, perfect for the thirsty plant shopper), etc. 

Getting to the Market can be tricky, but not impossible.  It is easy to find, being pretty much at the last stretch of Detroit street before it hits an end at Catherine.  Parking is a challenge, and my best recommendation would be to find one of the ramps that are four or five blocks away from the market.  Carry bags and/or boxes to transport your treasures back to the car, as the vendors can sometimes be in short supply.  Expect to pay about 2-4 dollars for parking for an average visit; the kiosks at the ramps have card readers, but as the Market mostly takes cash (except for the tokens you can get from the Market office in case you forgot to bring non-plastic currency) this should not be a problem anyway. 

Best time to visit: May and June.

Websites:

Main Site

Facebook