Farmer's markets are silly things. Mostly of the people at them are not what I consider farmers – this is their side job. A lot of them don't grow the produce they sell, buying it at the auction. (My parent's have friends that go to fruit auctions.) I should want people to buy local fruit and produce, but I myself would not pay the higher prices at farmer's markets. I would buy from small stands alongside the road – these generally are homegrown and more reasonably priced.
Most of the fruit at farmer's markets are also label as organic. I don't know how much of that is true. There seems to be a large disconnect between what the consumer views as an organic label and what the farmer actually calls organic. For the most part the organic label is unregulated (as is the term local) and the guidelines on what constitutes organic are fuzzy.
I think there needs to be better regulation at farmers markets in order for them to be what I envision farmers markets as: a place where farmers sell the goods that they produce.
(As an aside, I have a hard time paying supermarket prices for fruit as well. I've grown up with free produce and fruit – if you want it, go to the garden / orchard and pick it. Maybe if you have payed for fruit all your life the prices don't seem that bad.)
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