Far be it from me to fly the fad flag (yes I do schedule my workouts around Glee, what of it?), but I do want to take a second to praise my local farmers market, and locavore-ism in general. Localvore, it seems to me, is turning into a trendy urban buzzword, and while I admit that this was a bandwagon I jumped on, it won't be a passing fancy. It has been brought to my attention that a great deal of the produce found in my local big box (chain) supermarket is grown in California, or Mexico. That makes sense, considering that their growing season is a lot longer than ours here on the East Coast. I used to think it was pretty nifty to be able to get strawberries year 'round (or I would, if I liked them), but now all I can think about is how much gasoline it takes to truck all of that food across the country. And if food prices are jacked up to meet the higher gas costs, how much of that money is actually putting the gas in the truck? How much of it is going to the farmer? And how much is going into the supermarket chain? Call me a streetcar named suspicious, but I'd much rather see my money in action.
Helpfully located underneath a major highway, our farmers market is pretty easy to get to (Unlike parking. Parking can be a bitch. The trick is to go early, if you can roust yourself out of bed on a Sunday). It's also pretty damned huge. One can buy their entire grocery list while being pushed and shoved (gently) by liberal moms with their sling babies, and be-dreaded Rastas who smell like my high school auditorium. If you can beat or bear the crowd (and think on this - yes, crowd surfing is a pain, but this placed is crowded for a REASON), you've got your pick of veg vendors, honey havens, and yes, even the meat markets. Want mussels? Got it. Have a hankering for bison (ethically raised, majestically delicious bison)? They've got that, too. Plus homemade rice krispy treats, more mushrooms than I've ever seen in my life, jellies, jams, pies, goat milk, free range eggs, and what is possibly the worlds best coffee (Here's looking at you, Zeke's.). If your fridge is stocked, but you want a hot breakfast, there are crepe makers, Cajun food slingers, Omletters, and homemade donuts. Mango and sticky rice. Freaking CURRY CHICKEN WRAPS. And the best part? All of these foods are made by people who care a lot about what they're doing. At one of the veg vendors, I was able to ask questions about how the farmers went about their work. The couple at the egg stand were happy to share with me what makes their eggs "free range". They were proud of their products, and why shouldn't they be? Their time and effort went a long way.
The guy who hands me my sack of zucchini, for example, he pulls them out of the ground himself. The gourmet mallow makers are a family business. They take their son (the same son who's picture is on the packaging) to the market every week. These people groove on food. And I'm starting to do the same.
The produce that I get there is always fresh and local, and usually lasts longer than the stuff I pick up at my local big box store. I could swear that it tastes better. Had I been this healthy an eater all along, this blog wouldn't exist, but I found myself with a hankering for purple broccoli stir fry the other night (don't fear the purple. It tastes the same as the green, and it's more local-football-team oriented).
The point I'm trying to make is that this localvore thing, eating honey that came from half an hour away, and picking my own peaches when I can, it's changed the way I look at food. It's changed my whole life. What I'm going to do in the winter, when the market shuts down, is a completely different story. Maybe my next post will be about CSAs.
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