Today is Earth Day, so it seems appropriate to celebrate the opening of the local farmers market. Frequenting farmers markets offers many advantages to consumers, including the opportunity to consume green produce, support local growers, and incidentally, get the highest quality foods right at the peak of ripeness. We are fortunate enough to have two markets to choose from, and they both opened this past weekend.
What’s Green About Farmers Market?
My entire family loves strawberries. We can call them healthy since they’re a fruit. (Let’s ignore the fructose, shall we?) Not surprisingly, the fresher the better. Unfortunately, they’re not available locally for very long. So when we saw the postings about farmers market opening, we decided to head over and see what what the local growers were hawking. We got there late, and only one grower had strawberries. Sadly, we were initially told the strawberries were all gone. Disappointed, we kept browsing around, and on our return pass, discovered that there were indeed some remaining. (The girl working the booth thought they had already been purchased.) Needless to say, we bought a quart, and the pic you see is of the few that were left 10-minutes after the purchase.
I used to ask myself whether it was worth the effort of buying at the local farmers market. If you’re a pragmatist, from the standpoint of time management, it is very inefficient. As it stands right now, we usually end up making two major trips to the grocery every two weeks. One for household and packaged goods, the other for meats and “fresh” produce. Notice the quotes? I’ve come to realize that “fresh” is a relative term, because its trucked in from all over the globe, and quite frankly, it just doesn’t taste as good as local grown produce. There was a time I was skeptical of that idea, but if anything dispelled that notion, it was watching the reaction of the kids to this first batch of locally grown strawberries. And to be honest, they do taste wonderful. Far better than the ones that are picked while still green and hauled a few thousand miles for sale.
Having admitted that its a little more inconvenient, I’m going to consider adjusting my routine a bit. The local markets here set up two days a week (Tuesday and Saturday). To make use of the produce at the peak of ripeness, I would need to try hitting them both days and our family would have to adjust our cooking routine to make greater use of what’s available. This may actually work to our advantage, because one of my wife’s regular gripes is that “…we always eat the same old things…,” which is true since we always buy the same old things. If we can get ourselves to start using primarily what is in season, we will be forced to try new recipes. A plus, right?
Who currently makes use of the produce at their local farmers market? Do you find a difference between what’s there and the standard stuff you pick up at the grocery?
