Here's the thing, it's inefficient for a small farm to grow such a wide assortment of produce. Hobby farms may be set-up that way, but if you want to grow enough to make money from it, you need to specialize a bit. So most of these vendors should be selling only one or two vegetables in a few varieties. But they're not, because it would be inefficient to sell that way at an urban farmers market. The customers are buying small quantities across a variety of produce. They want everything in one place, so the vendors diversify by selling other peoples produce. I bet that many of the 'legitimate' vendors are buying from each other to supplement and diversify what they're selling as well.

The regulations are based on an idealized notion of farming.

They do this at the farmer's markets around here, too. That's why my parents- who sell their organic veggies at the farmers markets in Central Texas- won't sell in Luling, amoung other places. "Real" small-scale organic farmers can't afford to compete with that. Mom reports that some of the vendors with large amounts of produce truck their stuff down from grocery stores (or perhaps Costcos) in San Antonio.

Many of the legit farms have "farm stand" days a few times a month, where you can visit the actual farm to make your purchase, and check things out.

Personally, the only "locally grown, organic" stuff I eat comes from my parents- when they give me their excess, because I'm not a rich hippie. Plus, parking is always a bitch at the Farmer's Markets. If I cared that much, I'd join a CSA.

As for what Nick says:
If an organic farm sells directly to grocery stores, like Whole Foods, then having one or two main specialty crops is fine. But, if your main source of revenue comes from Farmers Markets, your stand needs to have a bit of variety to get attention. If people want value, they'll go the grocery store. Small scale organic farmers are marketing their boutique-iness/ exclusivity, not effiency. They aren't catering to the Wal-Mart demographic.

you don't know anything about farming do you?

I go to farmer's markets not for the "boutique-iness" but because the quality of produce in markets (even Whole Foods, plus I can't afford that) is usually pretty bad. I find that people who cannot cook (or maybe do not enjoy cooking?) do not care much about this. Bad produce is pretty evident, so if people are being duped into paying market prices for Costco produce, I'd say they are in fact at the market for the trendiness factor rather than for the food. And Nick is right, many small farmers swap crops all the time, and the quality stays high.

I have noticed that farmer's market's down here in LA are different than those I went to in the Bay Area, so I think this phenomenon probably differs based on where you live. I can't find a CSA that's based out of an actual farm down here, they all appear to be basically organic grocery personal shopping services. When I lived in Oakland, I had a CSA and when I went to the markets the farm stands correlated with the different CSA programs you could enroll in, so I was fairly confident they were legit. I really REALLY miss it! (As far as crop swapping goes, for example my CSA did not grow much fruit - when we got fruit, they credited the farm it was sourced from.)

What's your experience running a successful organic farm? And how about marketing it?

We have a lot of so called Farmers Markets in Toronto, and I've noticed a lot of the vendors are just buying their produce from the Food Terminal (a socialist concept which ensures that everyone has access to fresh fruits and vegetables-truly horrible-just like our socialist health care!). You may as well just buy your stuff from the corner fruit store. A few of the vendors are actually farmers, but you really have to ask first.