A Day at the Tri-County Produce Auction Co-op

Cucumbers, kohlrabi, tomatoes, cherries, flowers, radishes, green beans and much more—the fruits of many farmers’ labor—sit packed in vegetable boxes placed on palates in eight neat rows spread across the Tri-County Produce Auction Co-op shed.

Up front, the auctioneer and bookkeeper stand on a raised podium before a crowd of chairs and people—some grocers, some distributors, but mostly local residents or farmers bidding on fresh produce to fill their vegetable stands.

Just like at any other auction, the crowd gathers before the auctioneer to analyze and bid on the presented goods.

Attendees like Leah Caplan, Metcalfe’s Market Chief Food Officer and Local Food Liaison, scope out the morning’s bounty of freshly-picked crops, searching for fresh vegetables to fill the local produce aisle and the deli. To confirm how much produce to buy, Caplan makes two short telephone calls to produce managers at Metcalfe's locations in Madison and Wauwatosa.

But unlike at other auctions, Caplan's use of her cell phone is not normal or routine here, for the Tri-County Prooduce auction is an Amish community-run auction.

Another look around the shed reveals a mix of modern-day Wisconsinites and pre-technological Amish residents from Dalton, Wisconsin, and the surrounding areas.

A glance outside portrays yet another unusual scene—cars, vans and large trucks parked next to horses and buggies lined along wooden fences.

Within the crowd, sneakers and baseball caps mix with work boots, straw hats and bonnets. Shorts and t-shirts strut alongside suspenders, black pants, button-down shirts and simple dresses.

This diverse mixture of local residents is also a friendly one, with many attendees offering welcoming hellos to both regulars and newcomers.

Whether a frequent attendee or not, the auction’s systematic and efficient system for displaying, selling, purchasing and loading produce is easy to understand.

Tri-County Produce Auction Co-op collects fresh produce from over 200 local growers, about 75 percent of which grow their produce within 12 miles of the area, the President of the Auction Co-op said. He wished to remain anonymous.

With so many farmers contributing produce, each auctioned item is carefully recorded when the bidding begins. A system of tags on each box of produce identifies the type of produce, quantity and the lot number of the grower.

The bottom of these tags are ripped and given to the bookkeeper to record the grower and sales. This occurs again and again as palates of fruits and vegetables are wheeled before the auctioneer’s podium and crowd for bidding.

Buyers look, touch and sometimes taste the produce before bidding. Some remain in their seat, intermittently raising a card with their auction number, an identification to record their purchases.

Others pace the line of fruits and vegetables leading to the podium and bid more aggressively, engaging in friendly banter with fellow bidders and farmers.

Once an item is sold, Amish farmers place it among the buyer’s other purchases. These purchases, boxes upon boxes of fruits and vegetables, are gathered along the shed wall underneath a sign with the buyer’s auction number.

From there, young farmers help load the boxes into vans, trucks and cars.

Although the auction is only is its second season, produce exchanges hands smoothly, revealing years of experience.

This experience comes from years at the Badgerland Produce Co-op Auction in Montello, Wisconsin, which many participating Amish farmers left to start the Tri-county Produce Auction last year, the Tri-County Produce Auction Co-op President said.

And when the Amish community left to form a new auction, many bidders followed.

Leah Caplan

Linda from Cambridge, Wisconsin, who wished to have her last name omitted, attended the Badgerland Auction for many years when she noticed many Amish farmers were missing last year.

She has since attended the Tri-County Produce Auction Co-op for the produce’s high quality and good prices, she said.

For similar reasons, the auction continues to attract many people from late April to late October, when the growing season ends.

Among those attendees is Caplan who attends about once a week throughout the summer to procure the latest bounty of local produce.

For Caplan, whose position at Metcalfe’s Market involves working with many different local farmers, organizations and food industries, the Tri-County Produce Auction remains a unique experience.

“Working with the Amish produce farmers…to me, has been the most educational and interesting experience I’ve had [in my position],” she said.