30 Years Ago, the University District Farmers Market Changed Everything

A small notice in the Seattle Times Tempo section in the summer of 1993 announced a new farmers market in the University District would start June 19. The newspaper’s take: “Neat idea – expect it to prosper, and repeat next summer.”

The University District Farmers Market was, indeed, a neat idea. Such a neat idea that  today weekly markets are a library- or coffee shop–level fixture in neighborhoods, giving us a direct line to delicate greens and the best berries. We congregate here the way beautiful people of the disco era converged upon Studio 54, worn canvas totes and sensible sandals in place of club drugs and gold lamé.

Seattle’s network of markets turned meticulous farmers like Billy Allstot, Hilario Alvarez, and Katsumi Taki into household names. Businesses like Rachel’s Ginger Beer and Sea Wolf Bakers built their customer base in market stalls before they became brick-and-mortar enterprises.

In the early 1990s, Seattle had craft markets and street fairs and, of course, Pike Place Market. It also had a woman named Chris Curtis, who had recently sold her Häagen-Dazs franchise in the University District, with an eye toward retirement life. While visiting a friend in Santa Monica, she stumbled on that town’s magnificent weekly market downtown. “It was huge and just packed full of farmers,” she remembers. “And I thought, that’s what we need.”

Her timing was good. University District businesses liked the idea of a community event. Pike Place Market, she recalls, was tilting its offerings more toward tourists and visitors—people more likely to buy a bar of artisanal soap than a head of tender lettuce. Farmers needed new places to sell. Curtis got busy. While people came on board readily, “It was a new prototype,” she says. “For Seattle to have a farmers market in the neighborhood was different.”

Her biggest task, of course, was securing a critical mass of farmers, a group not known for announcing their presence on tidy spreadsheets or mailing lists. Curtis ultimately gathered a list of about 260 Washington growers and sent out a survey, asking if they’d be interested in selling directly to the public.

Her team of volunteers opened the University District Farmers Market on less than $7,000. On opening day, Curtis recalls 21 vendors—16 farmers, plus baked goods, preserves, and a nursery. Her goal was 500 shoppers on opening day. “I think we had 800.”

Those customers came back the next Saturday, and the week after that. Today, 6,000 people might shop on a busy Saturday. Some vendors who came on in 1993—Tonnemaker Valley Farm, Schuh Family Farms, Rockridge Orchards and Cidery—are still around.

Back then, the health department usually required that anyone selling “risky” foods—eggs, dairy, meat, or shellfish—have mechanical refrigeration. Plug-in refrigerators weren’t a thing at farmers markets. Wine or beer—both Washington-grown agricultural products—weren’t allowed either. Over the years Curtis and her team have done a ton of unsexy work coordinating with county and state departments to whack away at the legal gray areas that got in the way of connecting all kinds of producers with customers.

“Farmers markets fall in this regulatory crevasse,” says Jennifer Antos, who succeeded Curtis as executive director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in 2018. “We’re not a grocery store, not a restaurant. We are not a lot of things, and yet we do all those things.”

Over the years, the group Curtis founded grew to encompass seven markets, from Lake City to West Seattle. They aren’t the only game in town; the Seattle Farmers Market Association runs its own set of popular neighborhood markets. Pike Place Market runs “express” markets around the city. The Queen Anne Farmers Market is its own big thing. In 1990, the Washington State Farmers Market Association counted 20 such enterprises within our borders. Today Washington has 110.

While the University District Farmers Market marked its official anniversary back in June, the celebrations happen this month. During National Farmers Market week, August 6–12, the U-District market and its siblings will have special merch for sale, created with local artist Stevie Shao.

Some of the education remains the same as it was in the 1990s. People still ask where they can find lemons (not typically a Washington crop). But we’ve come a long way, says Curtis. “A generation and a half, almost, now know when strawberries are in season. And that’s pretty cool.”