The Black Hills Farmers Market is off to an early start this year, opening on Saturdays in June for the first time. The market, on West Omaha Street near the concrete fish sculpture, usually opens starting in July on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

At its summer high point, the market averages about 25 vendors each day it is open and has been known to feature fresh meat, eggs, jams and jellies, and produce such as peas, green beans, lettuce, asparagus and rhubarb.

In addition to helping you heed mom's admonitions to eat more vegetables, farmers markets present an excellent opportunity for people to directly support local producers. By cutting out middlemen and selling to customers directly, farmers get more profit for their produce.

Farmers markets are a tradition that goes back to the pre-industrial age, and they have surged in popularity in the past 20 years.

Supporters of farmers markets believe that because their produce does not travel as far as supermarket produce , farmers can pick the food at the peak of its flavor, ripeness and nutritional content.

But the markets are more than a place to buy food. They also have a social aspect. Their outdoors festival atmosphere attracts people who want to talk with farmers about the methods used to grow their produce and tasty ways to prepare it.

In South Dakota, that connection between producers and consumers should not be as rare as it seems to have become. Producers often lament the nonchalance with which consumers have begun to treat their life's work. Local farmers markets are one way for people to reconnect with those who give us much of the food we eat.

Fresher food from people who are your neighbors - it's hard to argue with that.

The Black Hills Farmers Market will add Tuesdays and Thursdays to its schedule beginning July 3.