SALT LAKE CITY — Shoppers at a bustling Salt Lake City farmers market browse offerings each week like fresh greens, ruby-fleshed oranges and toasty loaves of sourdough.
Then they click Add to Cart.
As the coronavirus has halted traditional farmers markets, an online marketplace with a drive-thru pickup in Utah’s capital city is catering to more and more customers.
Farmer Jared Hankins opened the Hand Sown Homegrown Farm Store as a way to fill the gap between winter and summer markets.
Now in its third season, it has proven to be a natural fit for the limitations of social distancing. Orders have boomed to a weekly high of nearly 300 and he has hired a handful of employees to keep pace.
This year, “I knew week one when this thing launched and I saw the amount of support, the amount of orders, that I had spent the two years in training, and it was now time for this to thrive,” Hankins said.
“Now’s the time where people are experiencing food-buying how I feel it should be. I just think there’s been a turn in the general public’s mind now due to the COVID.”
In addition to the offerings from Hankins’ West Jordan farm, other vendors have opened virtual stalls in his store, providing goods like pickles, jam and local meat.
Hankins harvests on Fridays and Saturdays. Then he and his employees package the online orders for pickup in the Sugar House neighborhood on Sundays, where shoppers arrive with their order numbers displayed on the dash.
The vendors are netting about the same weekly sales they typically would at a traditional farmers market, Hankins said, and the vast majority of customers are returning week after week. Orders began to grow in the weeks after virus precautions and the March earthquake cut short the winter’s farm market in the historic Rio Grande Depot.
His shop isn’t unique. Small-scale growers across the nation have reported a similar boost as grocery store supplies ran low and shoppers sought to avoid crowded aisles, Hankins said.
At a time when most thrills have been canceled, many of his new customers are getting a kick out of crafting meals with local ingredients. Several send notes about their new commitment to good, fresh food, Hankins said.
He remains optimistic that Utahns will keep turning to local growers for fresh-picked fare.
“Now they’ve had the experience of connecting with quality food and they won’t turn back,” he said.
Fans of the downtown popular Downtown Salt Lake City Farmers Market will also notice significant changes this year.
When the market opens June 13, shoppers will be asked to wait 6 feet apart, and vendors spaced at least 10 feet from each other will wear masks and gloves, selling only food like produce, eggs, honey and meat. There will be no food-truck section, and no arts or crafts.
Unlike summers past, the market shouldn’t be viewed as a social event this year, said Alison Einerson, the executive director of Urban Food Connections of Utah.
“It’s really a tremendous change, and it’s kind of sad, but we just want to make sure these vendors have an opportunity to sell the products and keep their business operating and do it in a really safe way,” Einerson said.