Shopping at the farmers market
Posted
Jul 18 2008, 11:49 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Freshly
picked Rainier cherries melt in your mouth. At $5.99 a pound, they'd
better. This pricey indulgence appears in my menu only a few times a
year -- namely, on those occasions when I visit one of Seattle's
farmers markets.
These venues are jammed with heirloom tomatoes,
feathery field greens, dusty mushrooms foraged from Pacific Northwest
woods, jewel-like strawberries, peaches that yield sweetly to the
touch, radishes flecked with damp earth, sturdy maroon beets still
wearing their crowns. Much of the produce is organic. All of it comes
from small growers. To me, the best part of shopping this way is
knowing that a family farm is getting a decent price for produce.
Farmers markets have sprung up everywhere from New York
City to Anchorage, Alaska. Nearly 4,400 of these venues operate in the
United States, according to an industry group called the Farmers Market
Coalition. That's an 18% increase since 2004. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture reports that some 19,000 growers sell only to farm markets.
The
FMC notes "growing consumer interest in obtaining fresh products
directly from the farm." (Click here to find markets in your state.)
The increasing interest in organic food is likely a big reason for this.
There's another reason: The produce is superb. This is how food is supposed to taste.
'The cost for flavor'
Two
summers ago I caught my first glimpse of an aprium at a Seattle farmers
market. Worlds different from the larger, ruddy pluot, it's small and
delicate, greatly resembling an apricot but smoother-skinned and with
an ever-so-slight plum blush. The apriums cost more than I was prepared
to pay. Then the grower offered me a slice.
I bought a small box of the fruit. It meant adjusting my grocery budget for the rest of that week but, boy, was it worth it.
At
some farmers markets the prices are comparable to or less than the
cost of supermarket produce. Here in Seattle, the prices are at least
as high as those in the grocery stores, and sometimes considerably
higher. Cherries were on sale last week at a local supermarket for
$2.98 a pound, about $3 less than the farmers market.
A reader posting as "krp444" on the Smart Spending message board calls this "the cost for flavor."
"In
season, I patronize the local farm stands exclusively," krp444 writes,
"not only to support local farming but because the quality, taste and
texture of the locally grown produce is significantly better than that
at supermarkets."
I feel that way, too. For most of the year, I eat
whatever fruits and vegetables are on sale. A few times each summer, I
go to the farmers market and treat myself to the best produce I can
get. I'll fix tomato sandwiches for supper, along with a side salad of
mixed greens and a piece of whatever fruit looks best that day.
Ingredients this fresh don't need much preparation.
Lucky to have it
I’m
fully aware of how fortunate I am to have not just the option of fresh
fruits and vegetables, but the ability to pay for them. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture urges Americans to
eat multiple servings of produce daily. But as the price of basic foods
soars, it’s hard for some simply to get enough to eat.
Put another
way: At the dollar store I can get two pounds of rice for a buck. That
same dollar would buy me one-sixth of a pound of Rainier cherries. If I
were trying to fill myself up until payday, I'd skip the fruit and load
up on starch.
I wish that just-picked produce were more affordable,
so that all income levels could know the tang of a real tomato or the
sugary snap of a peapod. But that's a different issue, because even the
produce trucked 1,000 miles or flown in from another hemisphere costs a
bundle in the supermarket.
Food is pricey no matter where you buy it. Even the stuff that doesn't taste like food.
Part
of me feels elitist for eating apriums and fancy lettuce mixes, even
occasionally. Then again, good nutrition is a basic form of smart spending. After all, I could be spending the same money on a fast
food meal. Besides, I’d rather give my $5 to a small farmer than a giant
corporation. Tomato sandwiches are a much more satisfying treat, even
if they don’t come with a toy and a side of fries.
