Wake up and smell the potatoes. It's time to break up with your grocery store. At the very least relegate it to the "friend zone" while you pursue your true love relationship with a farmer.
Nothing good ever came from someone rolling a cart down an ice cream aisle. That doesn't sound right. Let me rethink that sentence.
I'd actually like to take that sentence back because mostly very good things come from rolling a card down an ice cream aisle. And it's the first place everyone goes when they break up with anyone or anything, so this might be a problem. Lemme get back to you on that one.
The absolute, bonafide, 100% truth is you probably can't ditch your grocery store entirely. There is nowhere else to buy those hamster sized variety packs of cereal to take to the cottage.
But you should think about shunning the produce aisle at the very least, especially during the summer and fall months. Push that wobbly wheeled cart off to the side and hoof it to your local farmers' market.
Just because you don't live in the country doesn't mean you don't have access to farmer fresh produce. Most huge cities host farmers markets along with small towns and everything in between.
The things you'll find there will do more for your health and well being than going for a 5 km run.
This is not necessarily a scientifically proven fact, just something I, a person who hates running, likes to believe. Here's a story about my crossfit experience if you're interested. It was a shitshow.
Why should you shop at your farmer's market as opposed to the grocery store? I'll give you 7 good reasons.
7 Reasons to Shop At Your Farmers' Market
1. You get to know your farmer & therefore your food.
This is Murray. He's one of my local farmers. Murray is a heritage pig and chicken farmer who also grows produce. He raises the pigs for meat and the chickens for eggs. He carries all pork products imaginable from pork belly to sausages to chops and lard. I've had them all. His pigs are pasture raised, aren't fed any corn and are butchered locally.
I know where the pigs live, I know how they live, and I know what he feeds them and how he treats them. I didn't even like pork before I met farmer Murray. Now I do to an extent. Plus he has a pretty cool looking weirdo heirloom squash there.
Knowing the provenance of your market food will make you more aware of all your food choices.
2. Farmer's Markets promote socializing and community.
Here's me at the grocery store: *I hate you, I hate everyone, I hate this aisle, I hate fluorescent lighting, I hate gum, I hate my shoes, I hate everything*
Here's me at the Farmer's Market: *I love you, I love everyone, I love this stall, I love the sun, I love gum, I don't care that I hate my shoes, I love everything!*
See the difference? If you don't, you might need to make a quick run to the local psychologist's office.
Shopping at a Farmers' Market is a way better experience. Just look at how much fun these people are having. You'd swear they were on drugs, but they aren't (as far as I know). They're on a 100% natural, market high. At an outdoor market you're happy to run into people and chat (as opposed to ducking down the nearest aisle). You're getting vitamin D, eating apples (my market's apple farmer give away apples), listening to music and generally enjoying the entire event.
Because shopping at a market is a communal event. It's something everyone happily does together, as opposed to shopping in a grocery store which has become like the elevator of shopping experiences. We go in, we ignore everyone around us, we get out.
Psychologically an outdoor market has all the ingredients for boosting not only our health but our mood.
3. Supports your local economy.
Support your local economy. What does shopping locally actually accomplish? For one thing you monetarily support people you know and care about in your community. Without you buying from them, they'd have to close up shop and clean houses for a living.
Unless their actual business is cleaning houses, in which case they'd have to close up shop and not clean houses for a living.
Of every dollar you spend locally, over 60 cents of it stays within your community.
Your town, city or neighbourhood is a little ecosystem; you need to feed it, nurture it and take care of it to keep it alive.
4. Freshhhhhh.
The produce or flowers you pick up were likely picked only hours before you bought them. Unlike a grocery store which carries tomatoes that were probably picked ... who knows when. On average produce travels 1,500 miles before it makes it to your grocery store. That's a lotta miles and a lot of handling. That travelling California strawberry has had the potential to pick up a lot of hitchikers along the way.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
The fresher the produce, the better it tastes.
Markets are also your freshest option for flowers. PLUS local farm flowers are just prettier than grocery store flowers.
Flowers are scientifically proven (this time for real) to elevate your mood and relieve anxiety.
5. Actual organic
If your goal is to buy organic, the Farmers' Markets are (usually) going to be your cheaper option. There's no middleman, no marketing guru to pay and no transportation costs.
Talk to your market farmer! (This is where the whole know your farmer thing comes in handy) Their farm may not be "certified organic", which requires a lot of money and paperwork, but they may indeed be as organic as any certified farm. They just don't have the paperwork.
The more people that buy organic the cheaper it will become but it will always be more expensive than non organic because so much more work is involved in growing organic food.
6. Variety
My favourite variety of apple can only be bought at a Farmer's Market. Why? Because they don't travel well and grocery stores don't want to carry foods that don't travel well even if they tastes more delicious than anything else in the world.
The Golden Gala apple can only be found at the market. Search it out. It's like a Royal Gala but golden. Sadly this picture of my market apples isn't showcasing the Golden Gala because they were sold out because they are SO good.
The Farmer's Market is the perfect place to get varieties of vegetables or fruits that you cannot, under any circumstances get in any grocery store. Golden Gala apples, Grey Ghost squash, Linzer Delikatess and Pink Fir Apple potatoes.
Other than a few heirloom tomatoes, you won't find a supply of heirlooms in the grocery store. Why does that matter?
Heirloom vegetables offer more taste, more textures and more colours. And that makes for more of a meal.
7. HOW many people touched that?
Less people have touched your food at the market. In fact, it's entirely possible that the only person to have touched it was the farmer or their hired helper.
More people have touched your food at the grocery store. A lot more. Not that it matters terribly because you're going to wash it, but still.
As an added bonus here's another reason to take in a Farmer's market. They're dog friendly.
Think maybe a roadside stand is a good option for your produce? Usually they are. I have a friend who has a great roadside stand where he sells beautiful organic lettuces.
But sometimes those roadside stands are just posing as farmers. They buy their produce wholesale, put on a pair of muddy boots and set up shop on a country road. Seriously. So vet them before you buy from them. Just ask a few questions about where the food came from and if they grew it. Maybe a couple of follow up questions about variety or where their farm is.
My town's market has a vetting process where everyone who is part of the market must allow the market manager access to their farm to look around and approve it.
This ensures that the farmers are actual farmers.
Not all markets work the same way so if you're unsure about the produce, do like I told you to do with the roadside stand. Ask questions. Probe. Be a pest. If they're an actual farmer they'll be more than happy to talk to you for weeks on end about the perils of the Colorado Potato Beetle.
Now back to that ice cream aisle problem. It just occurred to me that you probably can skip it as well. Farmers' markets have ice cream too.
In this case it's an all natural, vegan Pumpkin Maple Paleta from Rudy's.
3 of which are sitting in my freezer right now, just waiting for me to break up with someone or something.
This post was originally published a few years ago. I do not have 3 Pumpkin Maple Paleta's in my freezer right now. I have half a pint of homemade Bourbon Apricot swirl ice cream from Foundry Ice cream.
Ice cream farmers - available only at your local farmers' market.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Tres
I thought Murray was going to be one of the 7 reasons to shop at a farmers market!
Jan in Waterdown
Welllll, it looks like he hands out smooches too! 😉
Karen
I got to be such good friends with Murray from the market that I was invited to his wedding! Which is to say Murray - is off the market. ~ karen!
GinaG
Has anyone told Murray he looks like Russell Crowe (before)?
Katie
I came here to ask why Russell Crowe was handling the squash!
Karen
LOL. Seems Murray is the hit of the post. ~ karen!
Elaine
The picture of the pooch made me laugh. Only a smiling dog with crazy hair could do this so early in the morning. I used to grow and sell produce and flowers at our local farmer's market, It was a blast, flower bouquets brought people in early in the morning and by the afternoon I would be sold out. Exhausting work but quite fulfilling. Locally grown is always best.
Cara M Powers
Great post on Farmers Markets.......
Jane
I only buy flowers from the market. From Nov to April, the market is only indoors and my flower lady decided a few years ago not to be there during that time. So, instead of buying from someone else, I just don't and enjoy potted plants during the winter. And I only buy my produce from the market when it's outdoors. As for being a community, I've become good friends with some vendors that I've been buying from for decades.
KimW
Another good option that also ticks all these boxes: CSA's (which in that case stands for "Community Supported Agriculture"). This is where the farmer offers a buy-in deal at the beginning of the year where you pay a lump sum in exchange for a cut of everything s/he grows that season.
Each CSA works a bit differently; sometimes a farmer sells CSA shares direct to the public individually, but in most cases, you sign up with a group and the GROUP makes the deal with the farmer - or, farmers. With my own CSA, they have deals with one guy for veg, another guy for fruit, and you can also opt in to get eggs, dairy, and meat from other farmers (or maybe it's the same guy who does the veg, I'm not sure).
As a member of the CSA, here's what I do; every March I pick what things I want - veg and fruit for me, usually, and sometimes I get eggs and sometimes not - and pay up front for what I'm getting. Then, starting in June and ending in October, once a week the farmers bring everyone's stuff in on a truck to the pickup spot (the patio of a neighborhood restaurant we're friendly with) and the organizers divvy it all up and we claim our spoils. (Each of us also has to sign up for one "workday" during that time where we show up early and help unpack all the food.)
You don't get to pre-order anything - you get what you get. You also have the option of not taking something, of course; they usually have a box in the corner where people can abandon stuff they don't want, and maybe swap it for something someone else didn't want, or a second helping of another thing. (I can't eat cabbage, so I usually abandon that and trade it in for extra zucchini or something.) You still end up with a few POUNDS of fresh produce. Last weekend I got a head of lettuce, a bunch of spinach, a pound of heirloom tomatoes, a Japanese eggplant, a couple bell peppers, a couple jalapenos, a couple ears of corn, some onions, some garlic, a few pounds of apples, a watermelon and a cantaloupe. And that's all for the SINGLE PERSON'S share; if I'd had the "family size share" I'd get double all that. And that amount and variety is typical of what I get each week.
I do still usually have to hit up the grocery store once a week, but it's always only for a last random couple things like spaghetti and toilet paper or something. My weekly grocery store budget PLUMMETS every summer and fall.
ch
I came here to celebrate my CSA, too! And I do get to run into other shareholders (and their children/pets/visitors), and, while my farmers let us build in a vacation week, I *love* that every time I've gifted a share to someone when I'm going to be away, they have raved and either joined the next year, or become regular farmers' market attenders, or started growing produce themselves.
Not only are my grocery trips more infrequent, I can go to the closer grocery store that is great except for the produce.
It also helped with food policies in my house. The kids knew not all veggies were my favorite veggies either, but "[farmers' names, whom they knew from pickup]" grew it for us, and we're not going to let it go to waste." The rule was that one could opine that we had not yet found a particular vegetable's best recipe yet, but one could not opine that the vegetable was disgusting. We worked our way around to recipes we all liked for almost everything. (still working on turnips and rutabagas, which we can abide, but we do not yet enjoy, and said "children" are fully functioning young adults in other zip codes)
Karen
Even as a grown up I can only eat rutabaga with some brown sugar or maple syrup added to it, lol. But once I do that I love mashed rutabaga! ~ karen
Jan in Waterdown
My mum always said to wait to buy rutabaga until after the first frost when they’re sweeter. That said, she always added lots of butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper to mashed turnips (as we called them way back then) and us kids gobbled it up. Adding apples and maple syrup makes it almost a dessert 😋
Karen
Yes, definitely pick after frost! I've also read (but haven't experimented with yet) that shaving off as much of the skin helps. That's where the bitterness lies apparently! ~ karen
Jane
I had a very good CSA and it even delivered to your door once a week. It was certainly more expensive, but so worth it. I was introduced to so many new produce because of it. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the couple decided to retire and their kids, though part of the farm, did not want to take over. Now I just head out to the Sat. market every week.
Patti
Love this post. Farmer's Market, CSA, local butcher, direct from the farmer's land, local ice cream shop...the best.
Sher
I’d love! To read about your CrossFit experience but the link is no good🙃
Chris
It was all going so well until..... PLASTIC BAGS!!!!! No no no. Hopefully since this was first published they've been banned.
Karen
Hi Chris. They aren't handed out by grocery stores anymore, but you can still buy them. Honestly, plastic bags are right up there with straws. It's an easy thing for people to focus on as a symbol, but getting rid of plastic bags handed out by grocery stores isn't really doing much to save the environment. I wrote a whole post on what you can personally do to reduce your carbon footprint. but really, government, corporations and industries are the ones that could facilitate big change - if they wanted to. ~ karen!
Randy P
It is always intriguing and educational for me to rediscover how many folks do have a passion for their produce. In my inner-city 'hood the best and safest produce shopping is to be found at a local Pete's Market grocery store, known for their truly wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies.
Karen
Say hi to Pete for me! ~ karen
Jane
Pre-pandemic, I shopped every Sat at the farmer's market. Hardly ever looked at produce in a grocery store, even in winter. And for years, my local CSA even got me to try new things. Those were good days! My CSA up and decided to retire last fall, and the farmer's market was closed. I had to start buying eggs and produce from stores. Horror! Now the market has reopened, but isn't quite the same. At most only half of the vendors are there, masks and social distancing required, prices are up, quality and variety are down. Grocery stores now sell produce from local farmers as well. One thing, though, is still true at the market: freshness! Nothing beats how much fresher produce is at the market.
Julie Anne
Best shopping spot for the best food. My local Farmer’s Market had to implement some new rules to adapt to our new normal. One way lines, requests of one person per family and not stopping to visit. Once you learn the pattern, it’s not too hard and absolutely worth it.
Wendy Heath
Karen! I love you and all you do.
I also love my farmer's markets. I'm in Victoria BC and I have 2 Saturday farmer's markets within a short bicycle distance from where I live. I'm pushing 70 and I'm a life-long bicycle rider so when my creaky old arthritis knee made hills too hard, I got a (fabulous!) ebike last October and now I can say "what hills? no problem!". At the markets everyone lines up, apart, so no more cruising in the crowd to compare all the stalls offerings but at least they are open. I do car cruise up Saanich to some of the bigger farms and buy direct every week or so.
One thing, Karen. Here I have not seen one single plastic bag at a market. Markets here don't have bags to give out. The odd one at a farm but mostly not. People bring their own bags or take produce home in boxes which are reused over and over. You have one picture in this post with a woman holding 3 plastic bags with the market logo on them no less, each of them having nearly nothing in them. Why? Why? I could put all that stuff in one of my medium cloth bags.
With all the wonderful advice you give in this post, please please put in something that acknowledges the wisdom of using your own reusable bags. This precious and only planet we have is literally being smothered with the toxins released as plastic (extremely slowly) decomposes with the biggest risk being micro plastics that occur when plastic breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces to be ingested by animals that mistakenly view it as food. So small that we are breathing micro plastics now with every breath.
Now I'm going to go out and pick more Maxibel filet green beans to give to a couple of friends. This year, it's like having zucchini there are so many! xoxo
J Witherell
Ahhh, the old days of last year...
One of our largest Farmer's Markets is a close walk from my home but it is kind a shit show regarding social distancing etc, so I haven't gone to it this summer. There is a wonderful Farm Stand out in the country at the end of the property of an actual farm that I adore though! Pumpkins, veggies, berries, and they are wonderful people to do business with. I also buy my beef from a local farmer who encourages you to check out his farm - best beef I have ever tasted! (just put in an early fall order) There is a new micro greens vender here this summer and of course lots of "side of the road" guys too, who actually are local. Now if I could just find a local pig and chicken farmer I'd be good to go!
Loquin
Lol reading this just as we're going home from the farmer's market! However, I embarrassed myself and another lady big time by muttering evilly when she cut in front of me for eggplants - and she heard me!!! I mean, I wasn't technically wrong, but I could have been a lot nicer about it. I was mortified! Lol
Michelle
I live in a small town in New England that rarely has "organic" offerings as the small growers say it is just not worth the bureaucracy to get certified. So they offer locally grown produce but the prices are much higher than what you would pay at the grocery store. I asked a few growers and they said it wouldn't cover their costs if prices were lower. When I grew up, farmer's markets were cheaper because there was no middleman. I'm not sure that holds today.
Christine
I was at the Burlington Market this morning.There are an alarming rate of non growers selling.One of my favorite growers taught me to look at the truck license plates.Rhe real deal has a farm plate.
margaret
Not to mention how much of the stuff at most 'markets' nowadays has nothing to do with food...
Jan in Waterdown
Hi Christine, I’m old enough to remember going with my mum to the outdoor market behind Eatons in downtown Hamilton. She taught me way back then to check for “farm” license plates (and I still do!) to avoid buying from “hucksters”. Thanks for my warm fuzzy flashback and thanks Mum!
Vikki
I read this with sadness and longing. Ahhh.. the good ol’ days. Will they ever come again?
PMK
Another reason for me to love my local farmers' market. I got a phone call from one of my favourite vendors on Monday pointing out that I had not placed an order for a turkey. Talk about panic. I have company coming! She said not to worry, she had already grown one for me. It will be somewhere around 15 lbs and I can pick it up on Saturday (the last market day here till spring) and it will be fresh, never frozen since they were still running around the yard when she called me. Can't get this kind of thoughtfulness in a chain store. I'm definitely thankful for farmers' markets.
Liz
As a parent of the child who's mowing down on the ice cream, I can vouch that it was delicious (she had to share - part of the deal!). It's nice knowing that our kiddo is developing some sense of what's in season when. Of course, ice cream is always in season.
Lobo
Have you seen this past Fridays Marketplace on CBC?
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2017-2018/farm-fresh
Karen
I didn't watch it, but I've read the article about it. My guess is that's more of a problem at larger "farmers'" markets. Like I mentioned, mine, which is smaller vets and visits the farms of all of the vendors. But the Marketplace thing is something I've noticed at pop up road stalls. ~ karen!
Lobo
It's a real shame. Giving hard working farmers a bad name. I do hope it's isolated and will be eliminated now that it's brought to light.