Marketable Farming: Advocating the locally grown

This weekend, my roommate and I ventured out to the local farmers’ market and spent the morning soaking in the warm sun, the colors and smells of fresh produce and the friendly smiling faces of the local crowd. It does not take long in a great market to forget any reason to go into the overwhelming and falsely shiny grocery store ever again. Enjoying a morning out, and experiencing the friendly demeanor of both the vendors and customers is enough to put a smile on your face for the rest of the day.

While the large box grocery stores are selling more and more organic food, it does not beat the freshness of recently harvested produce. Despite the lack of the official certification seal, verifying that the food has been monitored and is safe, which is necessary to overcome the anonymity today’s grocery stores maintain; the farmers are right there to tell you anything you want to know about their product. The atmosphere of the market opens the dialogue between the producer and consumer that is impossible to match in a store.

Farmers’ markets allow a former farm girl turned city dweller, like myself, to access the local food of the region (albeit, nothing can beat walking out to the back field to grab a fresh tomato.) Normally, however, I am accustomed to standing on the other side of the table—for a vendor it is almost as important to spread awareness and information about the product, as it is to make a sale.

The local food movement has become more popular with the passing days as more people want to find out more and have the assurance by word of mouth that their food is healthy. Buying locally supports the small business over the corporate companies and contributes to the community development, both economically and socially.

While I think the markets still seem to be a niche for the select group of the locals, as the area expand and the crowds grow, something seems to be catching on. I don’t want to say that we are regressing back to the weekend market days and seasonal foods; but rather we should think of it as progressing towards a healthier relationship with understanding and appreciation for our Sunday dinners.