Organic farmer Ben Pentony prefers the quieter Southside Farmers Market on Sunday to the bustling north side on Saturdays, but free-range pork producer Sam Johnson has abandoned the southside, to focus on the north's Capital Region Farmers Market.

In America fresh food producers are losing sales, as more people socialise at markets, rather than actually buy. In the ACT region, organic garlic grower from Ingelara, Michelago, John Pye, says farmers markets are being copied everywhere, spreading customers around more.

"I don't think there is a huge deterioration of interest, but one possible reason for less sales, there are more markets around, they pop up for a while and go. While they are there, they spread customers around, that would be part of it," he said.

"It's not a lifestyle choice. Patriotic people want to buy Australian, it is fresh, produced with less pollution and less chemicals," Mr Pye said.

In winter Mr Pentony grows fewer greens. Even with drip-irrigated crops under polytunnels, short, overcast days limit critical sunlight, so he misses the EPIC markets, where his family were among original stallholders.

Mr Pentony said foot traffic at the southside markets was smaller, but customers rewarded his consistency in turning up with certified organic produce. "It hasn't grown, it hasn't shrunk either, I'm still selling out," he said.

He will return to the northside markets and bigger crowds in summer, when he has more produce to offer.

"At EPIC, the car park is massively full. People like to wander around, it is a bit of an experience, they meet their friends for coffee, they may buy some kale and eggs. People sit and have breakfast, they may buy something," he said.

The market gardener said this year's long, mild autumn seemed to extend summer and lulled him into leaving his sprouting greens in the ground longer, only to be caught out by a sudden cold snap and rain. The rain and bruised skies have not let up, making it harder to keep the greens coming.

"My crops are fast-growing, they turn over no longer than six months. Even in raised beds, we have had so much rain they can become waterlogged. Plants can stagnate. They are just coming back now," he said.

Sam and Claire Johnson have grown their free-range pig business at Murringo, east of Young, 100 per cent since 2012 thanks to the Capital Region Farmers Market.

Now employing six people, and butchering and smoking pork on their farm, they have stopped attending the Southside Farmers Market on Sundays. "We were holding our supplies back at the northside so we could go to the southside, it was silly," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said in the ACT, people came organised with their trolleys to markets, in contrast to what he saw at Redfern's Carriageworks Farmers Market.

"There was much more browsing, growers were not putting the value out there, people were not purchasing the same way as they do in Canberra. They were putting out more processed food, condiments," he said.