My favorite place to shop for food hands down is the Aptos Farmers Market. This happens every Saturday at Cabrillo College. It is year round and fantastic. Of course unlike the florescent lit piles of produce in your local mega mart you cannot find all items all year. Farmers markets are so fantastic because you get what is in season now. This means that the flavor of food is at its peak. I once had a hankering for apples. It was not the right season and so I could not find them at my local farmers market. I made my way to Safeway and bought a bag. When I got home and took a bite of one, I was so incredibly sad. Compared to the flavor of the ones I was used to at the farmers market, it tasted like cardboard. Because I like to eat I prefer things that taste good and so that is one of the reasons I love my farmers market.
Another is money. These days money is on everyone’s mind. There are two very important financial reasons to shop at a famers market. The first is my pocket book. I like many Americans prefer to buy organic food. We are waking up to how important our health really is. (Tangent statistics: this generation of children will have a shorter lifespan then their parents due to obesity! One dollar spent in prevention will save you 10 dollars in cure) one thing I hear over and over again is that people want to eat better, they want to eat organic food but they think it is too expensive. I think this is because they go to the big box supermarkets and compare organic to non organic. However what costs me 25 dollars at my farmers market cost me 75 at Safeway. Pretty amazing! What’s more is that I get all the vegetables I need for my family of two, for a week, breakfast lunch and dinner, for 25 dollars! I should also let you know we are not little eaters. We love our salads piled high with all sorts of vegetables and we eat them twice a day. So in short I save money when I shop at my farmers market.
The second financial reason is that of the farmers. I appreciate that there are still people out there working to feed not only their own family but their whole country. When I buy the pound of potatoes at any supermarket only about 3 nickels of my dollar get back to the farmer. 15 cents! The rest goes to the chain of getting the food ready and shipped to my store. This is really unacceptable. We should value the hard working folk of our nation much more then 15 cents on the dollar!
Book to read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver
Of course not everyone lives in such a place with farmers markets though I think they are becoming more prevalent. What’s more some parts of the country have real seasons unlike the California coast. I would next turn to a local natural food store and then the organics at a supermarket. I know I mention Safeway above and it is not to pick on them I am happy that they have started to carry their organic brand. I would scout out your local area and find where you can get good fresh organic food that is local. Contemplate how many people your food had to go through before it comes to you and make the best choice you can.
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