Farmers’ Market Haul

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We’ve been making regular visits to the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market (which totally gets bonus points for putting the apostrophe in the right place) throughout the summer. It’s huge and sprawling on Saturdays, while on Wednesdays it easilly fits under the main white tent. Unfortunately, I’m only off work every other weekend (which limits how often we can get down there), and the market is completely on the other end of the city from us (it’s about an hour and a half round trip).

This is the selection we got on our last trip, about two weeks ago.

That’s 13 ears of corn, five little eggplants, four gorgeous leeks, three purple peppers, two yellow melons (no idea what variety they were, but they were VERY sweet), four onions and five carrots.

One of the criticisms I’ve heard about shopping at farmers’ markets is that the food is expensive. First of all, we don’t shop at a farmers’ market out of cost considerations. My first concern is the freshness and taste of the produce. When was it picked? How far did it travel? How was it raised? The St. Norbert Farmers’ Market has a certification process to ensure that the vendor grew or made the product they are selling… And of course, it never hurts to talk to the farmer!

Price is really a secondary concern for me, but having heard the common complaint that farmers’ markets are too pricey, I checked it out. What you see in the photo above cost us about $16. (The melons were $2.50 a piece, so excluding those we got all that food for just $11.) The next time we were at Safeway, I priced out the same produce (having to substitute muskmelons for the yellow melons). The price there was about $20, even after we took our membership discount into account.

So! If you go to a market, shop around and compare prices before buying. And even if your market is priced about the same as your grocery store, think about what you’re gaining in taste and quality.

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Filed under Eat Local, Food Ethics, Food Favorites