Farmers Market
Jake and I just got back from our weekly trip to the farmer's market. I read recently that the number of farmer's markets in the country has doubled in the last few years, which I think is fantastic, but I wonder if most of them are like ours - not a lot of farmers. There were two produce farms represented today with a wide range of vegetables (we picked up some Yukons, peaches & cream corn, and tomatoes), a couple of peach stands, a guy selling roasted green chile (worth going to the market just for that smell alone), and a guy selling herb plants and other yard plants. That was it as far as fresh food.
What other booths were there? Let's see if I can remember. Two or three selling gorditas/burritos, four selling supplements (Juice Plus, some mangosteen stuff, bing cherry something or other, and flax), three with pastries/desserts/artisan breads, one pasta, one rice (where we get our black glutinous rice, which you MUST try sometime), three with flavored oils and vinegars.
Then there were several selling salsa (two Caribbean), a kid selling pickles, a family with a honey booth.
A rancher selling beef. Awesome beef. $900 for 125 lbs of beef.
Cotton candy, ice cream, shaved ice, coffee, doughnuts, roasted corn, one standard run of the mill festival food type trailer ...
Jewelry, purses, hats ...
Candles, salt lamps, potpourri ...
Houses (a developer was there) ...
Is this really what farmer's markets are and have always been? I really don't know. Seems like a farmer's market should be a market full of farmers, not all of the this other stuff. When I lived in Albuquerque there was a year round store farmer's market in a permanent storefront. That place was AWESOME and probably the single most difficult thing to leave when we moved, which is saying a lot because I loved New Mexico. I don't necessarily need that here, but then again, why the heck couldn't it be here? The produce there was much less expensive than the grocery stores, it was unbelievably good, and it supported local farms. There has to be a way to do that here.
Uh oh. Sounds like another project coming on. Bill's not going to be happy.
What other booths were there? Let's see if I can remember. Two or three selling gorditas/burritos, four selling supplements (Juice Plus, some mangosteen stuff, bing cherry something or other, and flax), three with pastries/desserts/artisan breads, one pasta, one rice (where we get our black glutinous rice, which you MUST try sometime), three with flavored oils and vinegars.
Then there were several selling salsa (two Caribbean), a kid selling pickles, a family with a honey booth.
A rancher selling beef. Awesome beef. $900 for 125 lbs of beef.
Cotton candy, ice cream, shaved ice, coffee, doughnuts, roasted corn, one standard run of the mill festival food type trailer ...
Jewelry, purses, hats ...
Candles, salt lamps, potpourri ...
Houses (a developer was there) ...
Is this really what farmer's markets are and have always been? I really don't know. Seems like a farmer's market should be a market full of farmers, not all of the this other stuff. When I lived in Albuquerque there was a year round store farmer's market in a permanent storefront. That place was AWESOME and probably the single most difficult thing to leave when we moved, which is saying a lot because I loved New Mexico. I don't necessarily need that here, but then again, why the heck couldn't it be here? The produce there was much less expensive than the grocery stores, it was unbelievably good, and it supported local farms. There has to be a way to do that here.
Uh oh. Sounds like another project coming on. Bill's not going to be happy.
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