Farmer's Markets. Some thoughts on hanging out in parking lots.

I'm starting to not understand why people give farmers markets a bad rap for being too expensive. realistically, it is an incredibly better value. 

environmentally, they have less cost on the damage done regarding carbon footprints because the food hasn't been flown across the world, transported from the farm to the distribution center to the store to the home. Farmers market farm vendors are located nearby and everything that they sell has to come from there. I don't understand how many times people ask if the food we have is our own. < < insert snooty comment > > 

nutritionally, the food at the farmers market is the freshest, generally just picked that morning, a smattering of hours before. Many items found in a grocery store are picked unripe, shipped to a distribution center where they sit in a huge room and then sprayed with ethylene when the stores are ready for them so that they ripen and look "perfect" for the customer. 

economically, the prices are usually pretty low for what you're getting quality-wise. I guess it depends on where your priorities are, if you want to spend money on good food, talk with the vendors and know where your food comes from, and support the local economy at the same time, then the prices are worth it. some prices will be cheaper because the farmer is trying to make a living also, has a ton of produce and is trying to get rid of it! sometimes they will be more expensive than buying them at the actual farm because they have to pay for the labor and transportation costs to get to the farmers market. what we call a "convenience charge." 

but then again, is the cheap, nutrition-less and tasteless conventional foods too cheap? who should be setting the standard and what is it? 

 whether or not you think farmers markets are more expensive, the reason i am wondering why people think farmers markets are unaffordable, inconvenient, and stay away from them, is because since I started working there, I have heard a ton of people question the price. After telling them their total, very often they will be thrown off and say: and I have this cookie too. or did you get the 6 ears of corn as well? only 80 cents for this as my dinner side, wow! 2 dollars for this ginormous head of lettuce, really? did you include the peaches too? yup, I saw that, got everything. What I think it is, is that people don't usually have much cash, so when they're emptying their wallets of the few bills they have, they feel as though they can't get much. A lot of people ask if we accept cards. It's the easy way to shop to just hand over the plastic. I did that today actually and my friend who owns the restaurant actually had to tell me that the wrap was on him. I didn't even realize the price as I just handed him my card, blindly and without thinking about the total. You could easily get your weekly shopping at a farmers market, one stop shopping and helping to support various local businesses in your community - obviously depending on the farmers market, they are all unique. It's just the arm carrying capacity and the lack of cash that I think tends to cause people to stay away. Not many people use cash anymore so physically seeing your money I think psychologically makes people think they are spending more. 

the first day of our new van. the start of the spring it wasn't very full. now it's been completely violated. 

 Another observation about farmers markets is that I don't understand the people that bring their own bags, thinking that they're super green, but then ask for the plastic bag for their produce. why does it need to be double bagged?? Pints and quarts I understand wrapping so that the berries don't roll around and get smushed, but other than that, the vegetables don't need to be separated in their own individualized bags, they can all be friends in there! and they should be washed before being used anyways, they're not going to get any dirtier unless your groady bag is dirty, so why all the plastic bags?? it drives me crazy.

 some shots around the portsmouth farmer's market. 

so grab your bags, get out some cash, come hang out in a parking lot, talk to the local businesses, know your fruits and vegs, run into your neighbors, and listen to some live music!