"Farmers Market" is the twelfth episode of season 6 of the NBC television series Parks and Recreation, and the 102nd episode overall. It premiered on January 23, 2014 to 2.98 million viewers.
Storyline
With Ben Wyatt now Pawnee's City Manager, he and his wife Leslie Knope now work alongside each other again. However, the pair quickly begin to clash heads with their views on an inappropriate chard vendor at the Farmers Market. Leslie believes it is straight up unethical and insists Ben shut it down, but Ben is unsure whether or not the vendor's practises are actually violating any codes. When Leslie begins discussing the issue at home, Ben enforces a firewall system that prevents them from talking about work-related matters at home. The next day, Leslie presents Ben with a list of reasons why the chard vendor should be kicked out, but after overviewing the list, Ben comes to the conclusion that Leslie's farmers market rules are purely targeting the chard vendor. Ben is also not impressed by Leslie moving ahead and revoking the vendor's license without consulting him; he waives off the premature revoke as he still needs more time to sift through city codes. This angers Leslie and she schedules a meeting with Ben later day in order to solve the impending issue. Ben instead attempts to avoid the meeting by getting off City Hall property to inflict the firewall. Ben fights off Leslie's loopholes to keep discussing work-related matters, and the two end up in a public fountain. There, Ben admits to Leslie that her recent actions have not been taking his side into consideration, nor does he feel she actually has a case. Leslie agrees to be more respectful of Ben's position and views, and the two make up. After further review of the chard vendor's practises, Ben imposes that only after 5pm may he conduct his controversial sales tactics – that being, using models with limited clothing to entice market goers to buy chards.
Meanwhile, Ann Perkins is in constant agony with pregnancy aches and pains, and she begins to get frustrated with Chris Traeger's constant efforts to cheer her up and solve her problems. She stumbles across a Wine & Cheese club hosted in Ron Swanson's office that consists of Ron, Tom Haverford, Donna Meagle and Jerry Gergich. Tom explains that every month, they gather in Ron's office to vent together about what annoys them at work, over fine wine and cheese. Ann sees this as the perfect place to vent about her problems, but her constant yammering about Chris' over protectiveness leads to the other members of the club having to kick her out. They later confront Chris and inform him that instead of trying to solve every single problem Ann complains about, just look her in the eyes, nod your head and say "that sucks". Chris later implements that strategy and Ann immediately appreciates the sentiment.
Elsewhere, Craig Middlebrooks overhears Andy Dwyer playing his guitar at work and invites him to play at his nephew's birthday party. After his band mates are against playing at a children's party, Andy goes alone. He initially freaks out over what to play, but April Ludgate insists he will come up with something on the spot, as he often does so well. His awkward attempt starts off slow, but his innate childish and immature nature quickly has the children bursting with laughter. His gig is a huge success and April suggests that this may be his calling, especially after another parent wishes to book his services at a future birthday party.