What's in Fashion at the Farmers Market: Produce-Print Underwear

By Jenn Garbee Thu., Feb. 2 2012 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Farmers Markets

jgarbee

Farmers Market Underwear

January and February are ripe with local farmers market finds like fresh truffles, sweet limes and cherimoya. And now, an exciting (revealing?) new discovery: Underwear printed with your favorite grower's produce and logo.

Well, before you get all Valentine's Day gift excited, we should note that these were for display purposes only. Last week, we spotted the almond-print undies in question (pictured above) at the Fat Uncle Farms stand at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market, which does not permit the sale of commodity items that are not directly food or garden-centric by its vendors. And, there is only one pair of the "Nuts for You!" underthings (let the eBay bidding begin).

It turns the T-shirt printer tossed a single pair into an order of T-shirts that Nate and Bekki Siemens of Fat Uncle Farms recently placed. "He definitely surprised us," says Bekki.

jgarbee

Bekki and Nate Siemens

If you're familiar with the Santa Monica Farmers Market, it's an even more entertaining find as the couple don't exactly seem the panty prankster sort. They're the type of vendors who are always smiling, politely handing over a sample and discussing your most earnest almond butter dilemmas with an attentive ear. Hilarious salad green g-string jokes are more the sort of thing you'd expect to find over on the *other* side of the market, where the honest, sarcasm-tinted banter is always bellowing strong over at "mushroom man" David West's Clearwater Farms stand, and the outgoing guys twirling your bags of baby lettuces at Maggie's Farm stand nearby are always saying things like, "Hey man, what are you doing later?" to the cool chef types passing by.

Those T-shirts, incidentally, have a different logo ("I am a nut") and will be available on the farm's website soon for $20 each (Nate is sporting one in the photo above). As for the panties, the farm has no plans to print more, and they were noticeably absent at the market this week. As Bekki notes, "I'm just glad [the printer] didn't surprise us with men's underwear."

More from Jenn Garbee @eathistory + eathistory.com.