Badgers would buy produce from farmers and then up-sell it to customers at farmers markets
We tend to think that the past was a simpler time. These days, in order to buy fresh produce, the food goes from the farm to the factory for quality control, then it gets stored and shipped to the grocery store where consumers buy it. Yet it was not much different back then.
We might think that farmers used to sell their produce, but that was not the case. Even then, there were intermediaries involved in the consumption cycle. Badgers were merchants that bought produce from the farmers to sell at a much higher price at different markets to clueless customers.