Practical talk for market people.
Tent Talk treats farmers markets as working civic infrastructure, not just weekend shopping. Its conversations move between vendor applications, sponsorships, associations, data collection, conferences, and the everyday decisions that keep markets useful.
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Tent Talk is an industry show with mud on its boots and spreadsheets on the desk. It understands farmers markets as public gathering places, small-business ecosystems, and complicated weekly operations. Kat Fields-White and Bridget Myers guide the conversation with the ease of longtime farmer's market managers, educators, and consultants. The show is warm, but it is not vague. Recent episodes return often to the idea of growing where a market is planted, which means finding strength in existing resources, nearby colleagues, associations, vendors, sponsors, and community partners. That framing gives the show a practical backbone. Application season becomes a chance to talk about collaboration. Conference planning becomes a way to think about regional access, attendee directories, and professional networks that last after the event. A conversation with Maggie Funkhouser turns governance and chapter structure into a larger point about representation. A conversation with Amanda Edmonds uses data collection to examine how markets are counted, compared, and understood. The hosts are especially good at moving from anecdote to takeaway. They might laugh through a conference aside, then land on something a manager can actually use. Sponsorship episodes do the same, treating outreach as a matter of shared values, audience fit, and local imagination rather than a generic sales pitch. The show also keeps an eye on sector resilience, from SNAP disruptions to donation programs, monthly calls, and ways to keep professional conversations available without losing privacy. Its world is specific: vendor apps, market maps, stall assignments, bylaws, board seats, tourism tie-ins, newsletters, and the strange emotional math of planning another conference. That specificity is the point. Tent Talk is for people who already know that farmers markets are both joyful and demanding, and who want peers talking honestly about how to make them work better.
Made for: Tent Talk suits farmers market managers, vendors, food makers, artisans, association leaders, and local food professionals who want grounded operational context. It is especially useful for people building stronger market systems rather than chasing generic small-business advice.
What sets it apart: The show stands out because it treats farmers market work as a shared professional field with its own logistics, data problems, and community obligations. Its best moments connect one manager’s practical question to a wider lesson for the sector.
Tent Talk is a podcast for farmers' market managers, farmers, food makers, and anyone who counts on farmers' markets as a source of income. Please join us as we interview farmers' market experts, talk about ways to improve local food communities, and provide you with tips on building a successful farmers' market business. Tent Talk is produced by Farmers Market Pros.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Tent Talk turns farmers market policy, data and daily operations into practical business thinking rooted in local commerce.
Tent Talk treats farmers markets as operating systems, showing how rules, revenue choices and local relationships shape business beneath the tents.
A peach pie can make you surprisingly invested in California's market rules.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at how regional structure can strengthen farmers market associations and help new managers connect nearby.
Tent Talk makes a practical case for growing farmers market associations through local structure. Maggie lays out chapter-level organization, regional gatherings, and board representation from each part of the state, with the sharpest point landing on inclusion as a governance…
A practical look at how farmers markets can make better comparisons through more reliable national data.
Market managers often need a way to compare their operations with peers that share similar size, geography, and structure. Tent Talk frames that need through a practical conversation about a national survey meant to build a vetted picture of U.S. farmers markets.
A grounded look at how market networks can become shared resources and stronger regional connections.
For farmers market professionals, this single-episode review centers on a clear practical idea: growth often depends on the networks already within reach.
A candid year-end update on turning market uncertainty into shared knowledge, useful tools and stronger community ties.
Tent Talk closes out a wild 2025 with a grounded look at how Farmers Market Pros helps market operators and vendors learn from one another. The SNAP gap gives the episode its urgency, but the conversation stays focused on what can be done next: seasonal podcast runs, monthly…
A practical guide to finding sponsors with a natural connection to a farmers market's community.
When dependable funding starts to look shaky, sponsorship can give farmers markets another route. Kat Fields-White, Bridget Myers and their former co-host focus on organizations whose customers may already be part of a market's community: gyms, yoga studios, tourism groups,…
A practical look at reusable bags, market waste, farmer buy-in, and the rules shaping small-farm revenue.
Tent Talk turns listener questions into a useful look at waste reduction where it actually has to work: at the booth. The episode follows a move away from plastic bags toward reusable mesh produce bags, with attention to the grant support that helped supply farmers and the…
A practical look at how farmers markets balance trust, transparency, local business, and shopper convenience.
Farmers markets come through as working small-business ecosystems, where trust, convenience, and support for the local economy all have to hold up at the same stall.
Real talk for veterinary practice leaders.
Sales systems for serious electrical contractors.
Hosts Catfield Swipe and Bridget Myers, longtime farmers market managers and consultants, answer listener questions in an 'Ask The Pros' format.
This episode of Tent Talk re-airs an interview where co-host Kat Fields-White appears as a guest on the Fresh Take podcast.
This episode revisits a 2021 discussion on free speech at farmers markets, focusing on how market managers can handle political campaigning and candidate presence, with updates for the current election year.
Megan Loeffley, author of "Story Seeds, Growing Home at the Farmer's Market," invited shoppers at Baltimore's 32nd Street Market to "swap a story for a muffin" starting in October 2021.
Regional chapters matter.
Kat and Bridget introduce the concept of 'growing where you're planted' and preview an interview with Amanda Edmonds about leveraging community resources for farmer's market success.
This episode discusses the importance of networking and using local resources to grow farmer's markets and businesses, with a focus on an upcoming conference.
Farmer's market managers and vendors discuss collaborative approaches to application season and maximizing community resources.
This episode discusses maximizing success at farmer's markets by focusing on available resources and community power, supported by MarketWorks.
Kat Fields-White and Bridget Myers frame Tent Talk’s return around the market theme “growing where we’re planted” and a 2026 conference in San Diego.
Kat Fields-White and Bridget Myers use Tent Talk to focus on sponsorship outreach for farmers markets, tying it to third-quarter planning and 2023 budget cycles.
This episode of Tent Talk discusses how farmer's market managers can create and maintain connections with residents and businesses surrounding their market.
This episode of Tent Talk discusses how to design and manage vendor applications for farmer's markets.
This episode teaches farmer's market managers how to recap and share market data to engage shoppers and supporters.
This episode discusses how to track your market activity throughout the year, with a focus on log polling and market day tracking for farmer's market vendors and managers.