There is something intrinsically special about the farmers' market. It's a social event as well as a shopping trip, and a way to reconnect with the places from which our food comes. Friendly faces greet you as you buy real food; not a packaged and processed item that an unfriendly clerk directed you to through the familiar two words, "Aisle _."
What can that clerk really tell you about the product? Maybe the price... not where the food came from, who grew it, what ingredients they used, or when and why they grew it. These questions can normally be answered by a farmer or farmer's employee at the farmers' market. A dialogue can be reopened with our food, so to speak.
Food can be sampled; qualitative questions can be asked; recipes can be shared; suggestions can be made that someone might actually LISTEN to; there's actually an option to not buy ANYTHING that has a package surrounding it.
This is something that is so different from the corporate face of the supermarket that we face today.
After three years of saying I would, I finally made it to my own local farmer's market. The other instances in which I have gone to farmer's markets have been in Santa Barbara with my partner's parents. I really fell in love with the farmers' markets I've been to, but have never been in the actual town that I live in on a Saturday morning (unless I have been working), and never have gone to the Camarillo Farmer's Market until today.
It was completely worth it and actually a lot of fun. It had so much more organic produce than I ever imagined it would (and at great prices). I managed to find everything I need for the entire week except for Granny Smith apples, which I bought at Lassen's.
We bought so much (beautiful) food today. My grandma and my mom met me there with the car after I rode my bike up (ha, thanks, guys!) and we managed to stuff our bag full of delicious-looking produce.
I got a loaf of handmade wheat bread for only 3.25. Not organic, but totally vegan, which was worth it. The guy selling the bread even knew which ones were vegan right off the bat, which was great. Normally it's a rule of thumb for the person helping me at the supermarket to stop, look at me strangely, and say, "Uhh, so that's not supposed to have eggs or anything in it? I'm not sure we have anything like that." (I really despise supermarkets and do my best to only shop in their dumpsters.)
As photographed at the top of the post, I bought orange beets and turnips. I'm excited for the orange beets. I have heard that they are sweeter than normal varieties, which might make my mom more inclined to eat them. I'm not sure if the nutritional information is any different. I'm sure it is. Normally, in nature, color indicates something about the vitamins within.
Beets, carrots, and more.
I bought organic kale and organic carrots. The kale was 2.00/bunch, and the carrots were a deal with the turnips and beets, 3 bunchs for 5.00. Green onions, strawberries, asparagus, celery, tomatoes on the vine, mint, parsley, some kind of -quat, but not a kumquat, and a bottle of fresh, hand squeezed blood orange juice.
It was absolutely a great morning. I'm totally spoiled, living in southern California and having all of this fresh and organic produce available to me every Saturday. It makes me wonder why I ever step into the supermarket.
The funny thing that I noticed as we walked through the two aisles, lined with booths and vendors, was that none of the children were asking for candy or junk food and my mom and I, who sometimes get attracted to the 'wrong foods,' didn't have any inclination to buy anything processed and unhealthy. No cola to be tempted by, no boxed granola bars, no crinkly bags of tortilla chips with bright labels. All the colors that attracted us there came from nature, not a photo editing program or a laboratory. The farmers' market takes the focus off of what's designed to tempt us and puts it back on what we're designed to be tempted by. It really blew me away as I reflected upon it.
How could I every have taken it for granted? Delicious food, sunny weather, nice people, and running into a slew of people I'd never expect to see (but that I actually wanted to see). Not much can top that as far as shopping for sustenance goes.
Most of my loot:
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