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Making your way down the aisles of the farmers’ market on a typical Saturday is not an experience for the impatient.

Most weeks, the modest, white-brick building near downtown is jammed with people looking for locally grown produce.

In many ways, the market is as vibrant as it has ever been in its 134-year history. Fueled by food scares and questions about where and how our food is grown, farmers’ markets have boomed in recent years.

For customers, the draw is they know where their lettuce or cucumbers came from — and they can talk to the farmer who grew them. But that success has raised fundamental questions about the future of the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market.

Next week, the board that oversees the market could decide whether to loosen a policy on selling items not grown by the farmer selling them.

For proponents, it’s a way to give farmers flexibility and provide more variety. But for others, it’s a move that strikes at the heart of the market’s appeal. They want tougher enforcement of current rules.

At the same time, some city leaders have floated the notion of moving the market from its longtime home. A move could offer more space but, some worry, at the cost of the ambiance that is as much the market’s appeal as rich, red tomatoes.

The question is simple, even if the answers are complex. How does the market grow without losing its soul?

Maintaining integrity

At a small farm that straddles the Virginia line, Wesley Peterson raises chickens, goats and cows, in between construction jobs and home-schooling children. With a full beard and traditional clothing, he’s a familiar face to regular marketgoers.

Most weeks, business is good. But he also has concerns.

The market has a policy that allows exceptions to the general rule that anything sold must be grown, baked or made by the person selling it.

In recent years, that policy has been abused, he said.

And some farmers, Peterson and others say, routinely sell items they didn’t produce without letting customers know it.

If customers begin to wonder whether produce was grown in Caswell County or Chile, what separates the market from other places to buy food?

“We have to maintain that integrity,” Peterson said. “And that’s what a lot of markets lose when they get big.”

Big markets that thrive, he said, get more strict, not less. Even if nonlocal items are clearly labeled, as some suggest, it still undermines the market, he believes.

Some say the lack of more strict enforcement creates an uneven playing field.

John Handler, who farms several acres in Randolph County, once had a customer ask why he didn’t have green beans available, pointing them out on another farmer’s table.

That was in April — when beans aren’t in season here.

“I hear this time and time again from my customers: 'If I wanted that, I’d go to the grocery store,’ ” Handler said. “I don’t want to be a retailer. I take pride in the fact that what I produce, I grow it myself.”

How is 'local’ defined?

No one advocates an anything-goes policy, but some say there is room for more leeway.

Ruth Foster, a longtime market customer, has been circulating a petition urging a rethinking of the market rules. She was recently upset to find out that she could no longer buy butter and cheese from an Amish family that brings the products down from Ohio.

Food that isn’t local should be labeled, she said, but a market with nothing but local produce isn’t necessarily as good as it sounds.

“Local doesn’t have to be absolute. It’s a goal,” Foster said. “People are looking for variety. People don’t want to go to a market where all they have are tomatoes.”

In some cases, the definition of local isn’t as easy to pin down as it seems, some vendors say.

Brian Gann, who sells vegetables and eggs he produces at farms in McLeansville and Stokesdale, was banned from selling cheese made in Ashe County, then aged in Wisconsin before returning here for sale.

Ultimately, disclosure is the key, he and others say.

“If you tell the people where it comes from, and they still want to buy it, so be it,” Gann said.

Enforcing the rules

Few vendors are caught trying to get around the rules of the market, said Chris Wilson, parks division manager for the city.

Typically, issues are resolved with a conversation, he said.

“You’re talking about very good people,” Wilson said. “I think it’s never their intention to do anything harmful.”

When it comes to enforcement, some markets are more strict than others.

Sarah Blacklin, who manages the market in Carrboro, said the market there takes a hard line on nonlocal produce.

“That’s kind of our golden rule. Everything you sell, you must grow yourself,” Blacklin said. “You just can’t ever slack on that.”

In addition to checking out suspicious produce, the market conducts random inspections of farms during the year.

At the Greensboro market, farm visits are handled by the Cooperative Extension Service, which certifies vendors.

That process takes place once, when a farmer seeks to begin selling at the market. In large part, those certifications are based on trust, said Wick Wickliffe, an extension agent.

The visits don’t necessarily involve inspecting actual crops, but simply checking to see if enough usable acreage exists to grow the crops the farmer intends to sell.

Ultimately, the system rests on the farmer’s integrity. The extension service does not have the resources to constantly visit farmers, Wickliffe said.

“It’s an honor system,” he said. “Rules are made for people who will follow them. There’s all sorts of ways to get around them.”

Time for a new home?

For decades, the market has been housed in a humble building on Yanceyville Street, just across from the city’s old minor league baseball stadium.

Oaks ring the parking lot, and a lazy creek drifts along the west side of the building.

But with space at a premium, some suggest it might be time for a new home.

Ed Wolverton, the head of Downtown Greensboro Inc., said a move downtown would provide an anchor for more retail there and make it easier for more than 20,000 office workers to stop in at the market.

Generally, he said, the country’s most well-known markets are located in the heart of urban areas, close to retail and dense housing.

But Wolverton said he has not seen much enthusiasm for a move downtown and stressed that there are no plans to make that happen.

“We’re not trying to steal anything,’ he added.

The other idea, floated by Councilman Robbie Perkins, involves moving all or part of the market to the stadium.

That would address the space crunch and the issue of what to do with the decaying stadium, particularly its grand facade. The idea “is to try to create a special place for the market that would be its home for the next 100 years,” Perkins said.

But others say the old market building has charms that some might not appreciate.

Handler likes its intimate feel. Being packed with people isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“It makes you kind of slow down and take a look at what’s there,” he said.

'And it’s just better’

Walking out of the market on a recent weekday, bags full of cucumbers, squash and bacon, Clyde Rollins paused and hefted a tomato in his hand.

The tomato was a deep red with brown speckles, far from the orange baseballs you find in produce sections during the winter months.

“We’re supporting the local people. That’s what I’m a fan of. It’s fresh. It’s better for you. And it’s just better,” he said.

Whichever direction the market ultimately goes, it must keep its integrity, said longtime vendor Brian Bush.

“It’s going to go past us, and it should,” he said. “And the only way it’s going to make it and remain worthwhile is if it remains a farmers’ market.”

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com