‘Drive-thru is a compromise.’ At Lee’s Summit Farmers Market, vendors deliver bounties

Update: The Lee’s Summit Farmers Market will allow walk-up visitors Saturday.

The blueberries are just as juicy, the cucumbers still as crunchy and the tomatoes as tasty as ever.

The COVID-19 virus hasn’t affected the crops sold at the Lee’s Summit Farmers Market.

But the virus has changed the way the fruits and vegetables are sold.

The market opened for its 28th year on May 30 as a drive-thru. Instead of walking up to stands, customers drive to the vendors and remain in their cars as they make their purchases.

“We had to figure out a way to operate within Jackson County guidelines,” said Ashley Nowell, assistant director of Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street.

The markets are categorized as “events” rather than “essential services,” she said. This limits the number of participants allowed — vendors and volunteers — to 50.

Cars driving through the market aren’t counted as part of the 50.

Chris Flory of Greenwood has shopped at the Lee’s Summit Farmers Market every summer for 20 years.

“They have a really good variety of plants and produce,” Flory said.

She’s been buying there long enough to know many of the growers and one of the pleasures of shopping at the market is “visiting with the vendors.”

Traditionally, farmers markets tend to be social events where shoppers sip coffee, select fresh and locally grown produce and chat with growers and other shoppers. The drive-thru limits the camaraderie because shoppers must stay in their cars as a safety precaution to limit physical contact.

Vendors, who are required to wear masks, bring the purchases to the car.

Traffic flows one way through the market from a designated entrance to an exit. The lanes are large enough that motorists are allowed to pass a car that has stopped.

Although Flory said she misses walking around and talking with everyone, she recognizes the market’s restrictions as necessary due to the pandemic: “I’m in the 65-plus crowd and I appreciate that they’ve made it safe for us.”

She and her husband, Alan Flory, drove through the Lee’s Summit Farmers Market on June 13, purchasing bouquets of fresh flowers as well as asparagus, beets, radishes, green beans and zucchini.

In addition to flowers, fruits and vegetables, shoppers can buy home-baked dog treats from The Gourmet Granny, Vicky Albright of Kansas City.

Ramon Cusick from Drexel and his pointer-Labrador mix, Bella, waited patiently in line to make their way to Albright’s stand where three flavors await the canine customers: peanut butter, Snickerpoodle and fresh mint.

“They’re made without preservatives,” Albright said.

Albright has sold her wares at the market for 19 years. This is the first year for a drive-thru, which she described as “inconvenient for customers.”

Despite the comfort of air conditioning in a car, most shoppers said they’d prefer to stroll leisurely through the market in the summer sun.

“As shoppers, we do a lot of window shopping,” said Lindsey Bennett with Bene Terre farm in Oak Grove. “We like to walk around first and take it all in, decide what to buy and then go back.”

She and her husband, Cliff Bennett, moved to Oak Grove from Colorado last year. This is their first experience as vendors.

“Drive-thru is a compromise,” Lindsey Bennett said. “It’s challenging and somewhat awkward for shoppers but we’re happy to be here.”

Since opening on May 30, sales have been down, compared with the markets of previous years.

“Generally, we have 900 customers on average,” said Karin Velez about the number of customers at market in previous years.

Velez is the committee co-chair of the Lee’s Summit Farmers Market and owner of Wolf Creek Family Farm in Peculiar, one of the meat vendors at the market.

“On a good day, we could have 1,200 to 1,500,” she said.

On a June 13, 263 cars went through the market. On June 6, 226 motorists drove through and on May 30, 296.

Statewide, “the opening of the annual local farmers market has been challenged by the fallout from COVID-19,” said Jeff Samborski, county engagement specialist for the University of Missouri Extension.

As a number of innovative approaches are being used to keep farmers markets open and safe, one of the more successful has been online sales and distribution.

“These allow customers to browse, pre-order and pay for what they want days in advance of picking up their products,” Samborski said.

Online or telephone pre-ordering is available from many of the sellers at the Lee’s Summit Farmers Market this summer.

“We’ve been taking pre-orders since April 1,” said Jeff Beckner of Beckner’s Orchard in Wellington. “Pre-ordering has helped us in April and May.”

Beckner has stands of peaches and other produce at the Lee’s Summit market and five other local farmers markets. He is considering adding a seventh market to move all the produce planted before the virus crisis.

“We are hoping to move to a walk-up as soon as Jackson County Health Department changes the guidelines,” said Nowell of Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street.

That could be as soon as the next couple of weeks, she said.

Lee’s Summit Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 304 Southwest Persels Road, in the parking lot of Abundant Life Church. Visit www.downtownls.org/market

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 7:00 AM.