By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The local food movement may be a 21st century phenomenon, but the practice of buying fresh, seasonal food from nearby farmers is as old as civilization itself.

In fact, it was the norm in Waco just a generation ago.

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Waco had a thriving city-owned farmers market on the west side of the Brazos River until the tornado blew it away in 1953. A commercial market in East Waco took its place until it closed in the 1970s.

In its heyday, the farmers market would become crowded each day before 5 a.m., said Doug Brown, an East Waco property investor and veteran of the produce distribution business.

Local restaurants and grocery stores would compete for the best produce, and it was a regular shopping destination for housewives, Brown said.

Brown said grocery stores in the 1940s and 1950s would buy both from farmers markets and wholesale warehouses that often carried seasonal produce from Texas. Meanwhile, farmers would often sell vegetables directly to restaurants.

So chances were good that a melon or tomato eaten in Waco on a given summer day was raised within a day’s drive away, he said. Much of the produce came from this region: McLennan, Falls, Limestone and Freestone counties.

“There were hundreds of growers in Gholson, Travis, Cedar Springs, Bremond, Hearne,” he said. “Depending on the time of year they would be growing watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, blackberries and peaches.”

In 1949, Falls County had 347 vegetable farms cultivating 2,221 acres, with tomatoes accounting for more than half the total, according to the U.S. Agriculture Census. By 2002, there were only 10 such farms, cultivating 107 acres of tomatoes.

McLennan County in that same period saw its vegetable acreage drop from 1,001 acres to 27 acres.

In the mid-20th century, the sandy Brazos River valley bottomlands around Cedar Springs in Falls County was a prime tomato growing area, supplying the local market and larger regional markets.

Brown’s father opened a tomato packing house there in the 1950s, buying tomatoes from about 100 growers, and Doug Brown remained in the tomato distribution business through the 1980s.

Tomato distributors in the ’50s and ’60s would collect tomato harvests each year starting in the Rio Grande Valley. Then as the season progressed, the wholesalers would move north through Cedar Springs and then up to northeast Texas. The tomatoes would be sold mostly in Texas and Oklahoma, but usually within a day’s drive of the market.

But all that started to change in the 1970s, when supermarkets began to centralize their distribution and buy produce from large, faraway farms or even from other countries, cutting out small, local farmers.

Brown says that helps explain one of the mysteries of modern life: the flavorless supermarket tomato.

The old system allowed tomatoes to be picked when they were on the verge of turning ripe, Brown said. Under the right temperature and a small amount of ethylene gas, they would ripen within a few days when it got to market.

“A tomato has a metabolism after you pick it,” Brown said. “That’s what develops the sugar and acid you want in a ripe tomato.

“If someone gets antsy and tries to beat the market by picking it immature, or if that tomato gets too cold, you get a cardboard tomato.”

Also, the sturdy varieties of tomato that were bred to ship well usually lack the flavor of more delicate varieties. Brown said Cedar Springs growers used to grow several different tomato varieties that matured at different times.

“Every lot would ripen differently,” he said. “Once everything got to be on a bigger scale, the system wouldn’t allow that. It’s a nut-and-bolt system. Once the national chains came in, they wanted everything the same. Whataburger wants tomatoes in one particular size, and they know exactly what it’s going to cost them. An accountant doesn’t care about taste.”

Brown got out of the tomato business in the 1980s and briefly leased space in East Waco to the new nonprofit Waco Farmers Market before it moved to the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum.

Brown grants that modern supermarkets’ methods have resulted in much more variety and relatively low prices. But he said there seems to be a growing niche market for local produce, even if it costs more. Brown is talking to business leaders and volunteer groups about creating a local produce outlet on land he owns at the east end of the Suspension Bridge.

But he said there aren’t enough local producers left to supply enough produce for a full-time farmers market, at least for now.

“What has to happen is that the demand has to be consistent enough that a person who is willing to be a farmer recognizes the potential to make a living out of it,” he said. “There has to be that connection between supply and demand.”

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752