While farmers markets in Spokane County provide plenty of fresh produce, they also deliver a strong economic impact that last year grew to just over $1.3 million in combined vendor sales among seven markets here.

Washington State University's Wenatchee-based Small Farms Program is collecting such information as part of a three-year study on farmers markets that began in 2009 to research their economic, community, and environmental impacts statewide.

"From the markets that are members of the statewide farmers market association, the reported sales for 2011 were over $1.3 million for Spokane County, which is a big jump over 2010 when the sales were at $1 million from the reporting markets," says Colleen Donovan, a farmers market research coordinator for the WSU program.

The number of individual vendors overall among seven Spokane-area farmers markets also grew during that period, from 200 to just over 250.

"There is growth in Spokane County in terms of the number of small businesses that are being supported by these farmers markets," Donovan says. "For all of these sales, the farmers, since they are direct marketing, they're able to retain a greater percentage of dollars that are reinvested into their businesses and into the community."

For 2012, Spokane-area market managers say they are again seeing strong attendance. One market, located at 924 S. Perry, has up to 35 vendors during busier summer weeks for its Thursday market. It's in its seventh year.

"This market has grown quite a bit this season in terms of attendance, and also each year in terms of overall sales," says MaryAnn Delaney, the market's part-time manager. "Some farmers are reporting this year being a little slower in terms of sales, but I can say we usually average about 1,000 people a week who come through our market."

She adds, "These past four weeks, there have been times we've broken 2,000."

Six of the seven farmers markets in operation during 2010 and 2011 and that reported revenues in the study are located near downtown Spokane, and in Liberty Lake, Millwood, Cheney, and the South Perry District, and on Spokane's North Side. In 2010, the seventh market was one then operating in Airway Heights. In 2011, the Montfort School Community Center in Colbert was the seventh market reporting sales.

A majority of markets statewide are run by nonprofit associations that charge a small fee per vendor booth, and managers often track the amount of overall sales. The farmers or food producers keep the profits from any individual sales. Each market is open one or two days a week during a season that typically runs from May to September or October.

The farmers markets also have a structure requiring a majority of the vendors to be the farmers who grow the produce, or other direct food producers who offer their meats, cheeses, honey, and other commodities.

The WSU program researchers have surveyed market managers and vendors, and they have completed rapid market assessments for a day at individual farmers markets. The assessments have involved surveys of customers, observations, and attendance counts. In Spokane, they performed onsite assessments in 2010.

Donovan says customers are asked about their plans to spend money at nearby retail stores and restaurants after they've visited the farmers market.

"We also look at if there's a pattern that the markets have helped increase sales of surrounding businesses," she says. "With this spillover effect, it varies from market to market, but there is always a positive correlation."

While she concedes that an exact measurement of spillover spending is difficult to track, "we definitely know if thousands of people are going into an area, that there is going to be some spillover."

In recent years, several farmers markets here have adopted systems that allow customers to stop at a central booth where they can use a debit, credit, or state food-assistance card to buy tokens in $5 increments that they then can spend with vendors. One exception is Liberty Lake's market, where many individual vendors use card reader devices that plug into a smartphone to handle such transactions.

Overall, though, several managers say, customers mostly use cash in making purchases.

Brian Estes, a recent president of the association that runs the Thursday Market in the South Perry District, says that venue's bulk sales totaled about $130,000 to $140,000 in 2011, and he estimates only about 10 percent of purchases involved use of a payment card.

The Perry market also has experimented over the past two years with extending its season by taking its Thursday market indoors during November and December, and again in early spring, to a site across the street at 915 S. Perry. The indoor market closes for January and February, and opens again March 1 until mid-May, when the market resumes again outdoors and runs to the end of October.

The number of vendors for the indoor markets shrinks down to about 12 to 18, but items for sale include lettuce, garlic, beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, apples, pears, meats, and eggs.

"A lot of our farmers have hoop houses, sort of like greenhouses, that cover garden space," Delaney says. "There's a new surge of farmers who are doing an extended growing season, so people are able to buy locally throughout the winter, and so farmers can extend their season."

One farmer who has had a longtime booth at the Perry market, Gary Angell, says he also has developed income since 2008 from what is called community-supported agriculture (CSA), a membership structure in which clients pay $35 a week to receive a weekly supply of produce. The CSA customers pay a $125 upfront "share" fee aimed at sustaining the Rocky Ridge Ranch farm he operates with his wife, and members can pick up a food-filled, 40-quart-sized cooler once a week at the market.

He says he now has an average of 30 CSA customers for produce. Additionally, he has about 12 clients in a CSA for meat that costs $65 a week, and customers receive cuts of pork, chicken, and beef.

He says his individual sales at the market booth have declined since 2008 mainly because of the economy, but also due to increasing competition as more farmers markets have emerged and grocery stores promote produce sections as having some organic, regionally grown items.

"If it wasn't for CSA, we wouldn't be here," Angell says. "I'm not a hobby farmer. I've got to make money."

"Some people go to all these free community gardens, and that has an impact," he adds. "We also have a lot of backyard gardeners we didn't have before the recession. There are a lot of factors."

Angell is one of the few farmers participating so far in South Perry's indoor market.

"We're looking for more vendors," he says. "I'd like to see more farmers here doing CSAs and extended-growing winter seasons."

Within the traditional late spring-to-fall season, several farmers market managers here say they see repeat customers year after year.

One of the oldest venues here, Spokane Farmers Market near downtown, is marking 14 years this season. Three years ago, it moved from a parking lot near Division Street and Second Avenue to a grassy field on Fifth Avenue between Browne and Division, says Diane Reuter, a part-time manager.

She says the location allows more space for vendors and a place for visitors to sit and relax during the markets held 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

An analysis of customer attendance completed about two years ago estimated about 1,200 people came through the market on a Saturday. Reuter says the market currently attracts 30 to 35 vendors, and it has had overall sales of mostly over $500,000 a season for the past few years.

"There has been growth in sales, and more people are thinking about where their food is coming from," she says.

Reuter says the number of farmers markets has grown, but she contends that they don't compete.

"I think we all serve different neighborhoods, and we're all a little different, too," she says. "We have people who come to our market who also talk about going to South Perry's (market)."

Another longtime market here, held on Saturdays in Liberty Lake, is in its tenth season. Dave Gnotta, president of the market's nonprofit board, says it draws 1,500 to 1,800 people on an average Saturday, but also about 15 to 20 percent of its attendees arrive from outside the city.

"We brought in over $300,000 in overall sales last year, so we've had some definite economic impact in the area," he says. "I think the first year we started with six vendors, and now this year, we've had 45 vendors."

He adds, "We've been really supportive of vendors as incubators of new businesses. We've had at least half a dozen vendors who started their businesses with us and developed them into full-blown, full-time businesses."