South Side Farmer’s Market A Real Treasure
By Pam Gates
The South Side Farmer’s Market has been in business for 24 years, providing south Madison with fresh, affordable food in a safe, family-friendly place on the Labor Temple grounds, 1602 S. Park St., at the corner of Wingra Drive and South Park Street.
Robert Pierce, owner of the Market, has been doing this kind of work “one way or another,” he says, since he was a kid growing up in South Madison. “I’ve been growing and picking and working people’s gardens ever since I can remember,” he says.
Robert’s grandmother had an enormous garden on the south side, right next to what is now the Alliant Energy Center parking lot. “I picked, she canned a lot, and we gave lots away. I think that’s why I do what I do now,” he observes.
He remembers with a laugh the “old ladies” who didn’t want to go into their gardens for fear of snakes; Robert was a godsend for them.
“I’ve always worked with people, trained people,” he says. “I was taught by my grandmother, so I started teaching others.” One way he’s done that is by hiring people who have been in the carceral system and teaching them about growing food and selling it, through a program called FAIR: Farming After Incarceration and Release.
“’Felon’ is the new N-word,” he says. “When I got out [many years ago], I couldn’t find a job anywhere. I must’ve put in a hundred applications. I ended up growing food organically on five acres and going to school.”
The owner of the five acres, a local man named Sam Shapiro, kept urging him to take on the whole parcel of land: 22.5 acres. And his instructor at the school urged him to leave the program, which he said wouldn’t get him where he wanted to be. “Go live your dream,” he said. Robert finally settled for 20 acres, and that’s how his Half of 40 Acres Farm got its name.
Robert has worked with at-risk kids as well as with adults. Through a program funded by Obama’s first stimulus package, he teamed up with Milwaukee-based Growing Power, which works to bring fresh, healthy food to inner city neighborhoods. The kids, who were recommended by school guidance counselors, learned how to make spreadsheets, how to grow food, and how to sell it; they had a stand next to his at the South Side Market.
Robert has also held cooking classes at the Labor Temple, right next to where his market is located, aimed at college students. He was amazed at how many students had no idea how to cook the food he was selling them.
“I need funding to continue these programs,” he said. He appears to be pretty successful at getting grants for his projects, but fund-raising helps as well. He plans to hold a fund-raiser on a Sunday in October; it will feature a meal by an excellent chef served under a tent on the Labor Temple grounds.
A young woman stopped by while I was talking with Robert, just to say hi (and to try a piece of the fine yellow watermelon he was sharing!) She said she’d worked at the market at one time, as had just about every other family member and friend; the South Side Farmer’s Market is truly a family operation. At one time there were 47 vendors, but that number has dwindled to one or two at the moment, depending on the day. But what they lack in number of stands, they make up in energy and friendliness, as well as their beautiful, delicious produce. And the location offers a safe place for kids to run around while their parents or grandparents shop and chat.
“The Labor Temple has truly been a blessing,” Robert said. At one point he had farm stands in front of all the Steve’s Liquor Stores. He was on the Square for 10 years, and he has had stands at a lot of other places in town, such as the Villager on Park, but he felt that most of them weren’t safe, convenient places for his customers.
Re: his work with the FAIR program, he says: “When you give people a chance to straighten up their lives, … things just work out. … I can put the seeds in the ground, but I can’t make them grow.” He is working with JustDane in that program, currently with two people; for five years he worked with five people each year. He provides the work and instruction in how to do it; JustDane provides the mentoring. “I need another grant to get more people,” he says. “People who are labeled felons struggle,” he declares. “I know; I’ve been there. The system is totally against them. It wants them to trip up and be sent back.”
Robert is doing what he can to make sure that doesn’t happen, to at least a few!
The South Side Farmer’s Market is open the last Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October, Tuesdays and Fridays, 2-6 p.m., Sundays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.