If you are looking for fresh produce in Ames, you are in luck. Ames has two farmers’ markets running through the summer. Both markets are held weekly and offer every variety of fresh produce from Iowa farmers.

The Ames Farmers’ Market is a nonprofit organization and one of the few such markets in Iowa that are regulated by the State Agricultural Department. The organization has been around for 29 years and is supported by vendor dues that go towards advertising and promotional events.

There are over 60 vendors at the Ames Farmers’ Market throughout the season, which this year runs from May 4 through October 30.

Dick De Moss is one of the coordinators of the Ames Farmers’ Market and is also a vendor. For the past 22 years, he has been selling produce grown on his pumpkin farm.

De Moss said that at the market on Saturday, there were 25 vendors and over 350 patrons.

High time for the market is mid-July when the sweet corn comes in. Around this time, the Saturday market will attract about 600 patrons, said De Moss. The Ames Farmers’ Market did a customer survey last fall and De Moss was surprised by the results.

“We have customers coming to the market from further away than we anticipated,” said De Moss. “They are coming from Webster City, Fort Dodge, Eldora and even New Providence.”

The market is also limited by commodity. De Moss said that the market does not let in established year-round retail businesses or commodities like cosmetics, imported jewelry or health care products.

“Our market is just for producers in and around Story County,” said De Moss. “It is only for homeraised and home-produced items.”

Diane Taber is a vendor at the Ames Farmers Market. She has not yet been to the market because her produce is not quite in season.

“We don’t come in until mid- to late July because the we have to have time to produce the fruits and vegetables,” said Taber.

Many of the products that are sold at the Ames Farmers’ Market are not ready until mid- to late July, said Taber.

Some vendors may come in earlier with hydroponic tomatoes, baked goods and kettle corn or popcorn.

Taber produces and sells many fresh fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, watermelons and green beans.

Other products that you can get at the market include many varieties of baked goods, buffalo meat, honey, and even free-range chickens which are considered better quality than store-bought chickens, since they are not raised in a pen or cage, said De Moss. The market also has several flower and potted plant vendors, De Moss said.

The Ames Farmers’ Market has a guideline that every vendor actually produces the food they are selling.

The fruits and vegetables that you buy at the market are sold to you by the person who produced them or a member of their immediate family, said Taber. This means that a vendor cannot go and buy products from other states and sell them at the Farmers’ Market.

The Downtown Ames Farmers’ Market is run and organized by the Practical Farmers of Iowa. Vendors pay fees to the organization in order to have a place at the market.

The Downtown Ames Farmers’ Market also offers non-produce products.