one on one
PAtRIck HoRIne
co-foundeR, toweR GRove fARmeRs’ mARket co-owneR, LocAL HARvest GRoceRy, LocAL HARvest cAfe & cAteRInG WrITTeN By Valeria Turturro Klamm | PHoToGrAPHy By Jonathan Gayman
When the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market opened for its first season in 2006, cofounder Patrick Horine could not have imagined the success it would see in just under a decade. This year, for the first time in its nine seasons, the market will open three weeks early, on Sat., April 12, bringing a flock of food and drink vendors to Tower Grove Park every Saturday through the fall. “Since we started the market in 2006, the demand for local food has [caused farmers] to extend their season,” Horine says. “So we’re just answering that demand.” What role has the farmers’ market played in the local food scene and in the community? It’s helped introduce the idea of locally grown foods. There are a lot of other people who have helped with that as well. It has also helped launch local food-centric businesses. That’s what we’re probably most happy about. Several businesses that now have brick-and-mortar locations started at the farmers’ market – Southwest Diner, Traveling Tea, Salume Beddu, Kakao Chocolate and Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop. We also see a lot of area chefs at the market every Saturday. It’s had a really positive impact on the Tower Grove area. A real-estate agent selling a house in the area always lists it as an asset for the neighborhood. What new things can people expect this season? In the middle of the season we’re doing a new midsummer festival with 4 Hands Brewing Co. The idea is to have an extended market that will go into the late afternoon or early evening. We’ll bring in a lot of food entrepreneurs to show off their stuff and 4 Hands will do beer tastings. What surprises you the most about how the market has evolved? How big it has become. When we started there were 13 vendors, and we’d get about 500 people coming through on a Saturday. Now we have about 50 vendors and 4,000 people. When it started, it was really just something my wife and I wanted to do for our neighborhood. We had other jobs, and we wanted to do this thing on the side [because] we thought it would be good for the neighborhood. It’s grown into much more than we thought it would be, in a good way. There has been a lot of transition for your business Local Harvest in the past few months. How do you feel about it all? All the change in the past several months has ultimately been good for our core business. We are excited to be focusing on our mission and we are grateful to still be part of our wonderful community in Tower Grove. We’re looking forward to many more years here. What do you hope for the future of the farmers’
Tower Grove Farmers’ Market 4256 Magnolia Ave. (West of the Whitaker Theater at the Pool Pavilion), Tower Grove Park tgmarket.org
market? My only real goal is that 20 years from now this market is still an important part of the neighborhood.
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feastSTL.com
APRIL 2014
Visit feastSTL.com to read the full interview with Patrick Horine.