Why I love the farmers market

amylynne26

I know I am incredibly lucky to live near Seattle and have access to one of the coolest outdoor markets ever - Pike Place Market. Well for the past few weeks I've been going there for fresh fruits / veggies and bread (you can have my carbs when you pry them from my cold dead hands!) and I love love love it. Here's why.

1. It's empowering. I feel more in control when I get to pick from all the different vendors and look over all kinds of fresh straight from the farm produce. Even my favorite grocery store seems to recycle the same crappy selections and it's uninspiring at best. I seem to be more likely to EAT it when I go to so much trouble to pick it out, if that makes sense.

2. The kids like it. I've noticed I have more luck getting the kids (well the boy anyway) to eat vegetables when they have a hand in picking it out. My daughter even carried our bag yesterday full of lettuce and peppers. Cutest thing ever.

3. It tastes better. I will admit this might all be in my head but I DON'T CARE. If I think it tastes better I will eat it more readily/often. And that's what matters. It's certainly a lot more colorful, and natural looking. Hard to explain but I could totally tell the difference between store bought red bell peppers and the market ones I brought home last week.

4. It's cheaper. I know some may not agree with this but for me personally I spend way less at the farmers market than I do at the grocery store and it's just so much better. I'll bring home a huge bag of produce that would have cost at least $15-20 at the grocery store and I think the most I've spent at one time is like $8. (not including the bread. that's a little more pricey but oh God it's so good...)Occasionally the vendors even toss in a little extra; last week I got 2 handfuls of radishes because "your salad is going to need these!" They were delicious. I didn't even know I liked radishes! I also find that the more I spend at the farmers market on "real" food the less I spend at the grocery store on processed crap. :sick:

Anyone else love their farmers market? :bigsmile:

amylynne26

I know I am incredibly lucky to live near Seattle and have access to one of the coolest outdoor markets ever - Pike Place Market. Well for the past few weeks I've been going there for fresh fruits / veggies and bread (you can have my carbs when you pry them from my cold dead hands!) and I love love love it. Here's why.

1. It's empowering. I feel more in control when I get to pick from all the different vendors and look over all kinds of fresh straight from the farm produce. Even my favorite grocery store seems to recycle the same crappy selections and it's uninspiring at best. I seem to be more likely to EAT it when I go to so much trouble to pick it out, if that makes sense.

2. The kids like it. I've noticed I have more luck getting the kids (well the boy anyway) to eat vegetables when they have a hand in picking it out. My daughter even carried our bag yesterday full of lettuce and peppers. Cutest thing ever.

3. It tastes better. I will admit this might all be in my head but I DON'T CARE. If I think it tastes better I will eat it more readily/often. And that's what matters. It's certainly a lot more colorful, and natural looking. Hard to explain but I could totally tell the difference between store bought red bell peppers and the market ones I brought home last week.

4. It's cheaper. I know some may not agree with this but for me personally I spend way less at the farmers market than I do at the grocery store and it's just so much better. I'll bring home a huge bag of produce that would have cost at least $15-20 at the grocery store and I think the most I've spent at one time is like $8. (not including the bread. that's a little more pricey but oh God it's so good...)Occasionally the vendors even toss in a little extra; last week I got 2 handfuls of radishes because "your salad is going to need these!" They were delicious. I didn't even know I liked radishes! I also find that the more I spend at the farmers market on "real" food the less I spend at the grocery store on processed crap. :sick:

Anyone else love their farmers market? :bigsmile:

nhendri

We have little stand on the road here in Utah and its only during the summer. I am not sure if we have any farmers markets here. If we did Id love to know and go!! Sounds Awesome!!!

aymie24

Farmer's markets are THE BEST!!!

Check out localharvest.org to find one near you!

CSA's also rock, and often can be picked up weekly at the farmer's market!!! Two birds, LOTS of cheap, healthy, LOCAL food!!!!

If you don't know what a CSA is, PLEASE look it up on Localharvest!!!!! If we don't step up as a country, we are going to be eating produce imported from China. 12-14% of food consumed in the US is currently imported, that's SCARY!!!! We can produce enough to support ourselves, but our farmers need YOUR support!!!

Think about what being dependent on foreign oil has done to us, you really wanna go THERE with food?????

pdxmomof2

me! me! me!

I love it! We have one 2 blocks away from my house starting Memorial Day weekend and ends in mid-september. It is so nice to have it! I agree with you about feeling impowered! And I love helping out the local farmers!

We are going to try and grow a good portion of our own veggies this summer. My little one is very excited about this!

rolandhulme

I grew up on a farm and when we lived in England, had the best Farmer's Market in the country right on our doorstep (Winchester.) So I was thrilled to discover one near us in NJ.

I totally agree with what you said - the quality's INFINITELY better that the supermarkets (which kind of suck) and it does wind up being a lot cheaper. We make baby food for our nine-month old and I eat a lot healthier, with access to good, fresh produce.

Poison5119

While I cannot say I've been to the farmers market in downtown Indy (because they do like to charge the snobs MORE here, not less for homegrown produce), I did visit a HUGE one in Costa Rica last month that was out of this world. It felt like I walked for miles - this market was by a river in San Jose, and here's an example of the differences between veggies in the US, and in Costa Rica -- a KILO (that's 2.20 lbs) of fresh green beans was $1.40 US. Pretty good, huh? Too bad I couldn't stuff my suitcase full and take it home.

naugustyniak

While I cannot say I've been to the farmers market in downtown Indy (because they do like to charge the snobs MORE here, not less for homegrown produce), I did visit a HUGE one in Costa Rica last month that was out of this world. It felt like I walked for miles - this market was by a river in San Jose, and here's an example of the differences between veggies in the US, and in Costa Rica -- a KILO (that's 2.20 lbs) of fresh green beans was $1.40 US. Pretty good, huh? Too bad I couldn't stuff my suitcase full and take it home.

Hey....watch talking about people in Indy I grew up there....:laugh: I do agree somewhat about the over charging. I used to work downtown in Indy and loved to go to the market there on my lunch. I live in Podunk Indiana aka Hoagland which is about 15 miles south of Ft. Wayne. There is a really nice market here in the summer that I go to a lot. I have a HUGE garden and a good sized fruit orchard going so I usually grow my own but I love to go to the markets and browse and see if there is anything unusal.

jljohnson

3. It tastes better. I will admit this might all be in my head but I DON'T CARE. If I think it tastes better I will eat it more readily/often. And that's what matters. It's certainly a lot more colorful, and natural looking. Hard to explain but I could totally tell the difference between store bought red bell peppers and the market ones I brought home last week.

It absolutely does taste better. My husband can tell the difference not only between real potatoes and fake (reconstituted/potato flakes), but also between grocery-bought and home-grown. Our farmers' market won't open for quite some time (still frost in the ground, so farmers can't even plant yet), but I'll be ready and waiting when it does. I'm also so excited to be planting our own garden this year.

mbmempireranch

Amy ! I love YOUR farmers market We were just in Seattle a few weeks ago ( I chose Seattle over Costa Rica ) I know what was I thinking ! We will do Costa Rica later in the year but we had an awesome time in Pikes Market ! Loved Loved IT ! I told my husband I could live in Seattle any day !

We have an OK farmers market, nothing to write home about, but we also do our own organic garden ( we have acreage ) so what started out as a small family garden has now turned into one where I should probably be selling at the farmers market myself LOL !

But I totally agree... Making a salad with things that I have grown all the way down to the lettuce is pretty cool. And like you said, kids love knowing where their veggies are coming from

FluffnStuff

I found this on the USDA website.
There aren't tons of LOCAL farmer's markets where I am from, but when I'd go to Vermont every summer it was my favorite part of the trip.

http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/

Iceprincessk25

We have a farmer's market every Friday down on Main Street by the beach. THey have the most amazing flowers and fruits/Veggies. I wish I was able to get to it more often.

We the pike's market. We go up to Port Orchard to visit my parents every year and every year we make them go to the market. There's a hazelnut stand that is yummmmmy!!!