Shopping at the Farmers Market

I don’t remember what initially inspired Jeff and I to first start shopping at the Farmers Market. We were living in Lawrence, Kansas at the time and we lived only a few blocks from where the market was held every Saturday morning.  Those first few times we went we had no idea what to expect, and we had many preconceived notions about organic and locally sourced foods. Unfortunately, and even to this day, non-industrial or locally sourced foods tend to carry an image of elitism. I was worried that the purveyors would think that the mid-twenties, just learning about food and how to cook me, was stupid, and wouldn't give me the time of day.  I also thought that everything was going to be expensive.  At the time Jeff and I were just starting out and didn't have very much money to spend on food. Finally, I wasn't sure what kinds of produce would be sold at the market.  All of these things concerned me, and made those first few trips to the market a bit scary.  The unknown can be a terrifying thing.

Jeff and I spent seven years shopping at the Lawrence Farmers Market before we moved to Seattle. Since moving we've had the opportunity to visit a few of the markets in the region.  We shopped at the Des Moines Farmers Market this last summer and after it closed for the season we started going to the West Seattle Market, which is open year round.  We've also had the opportunity to visit the Vashon Island and the Yakima Farmers Markets.  And of course the Pike Place Market! The produce varies by season and location. As we continue to explore the Pacific Northwest, part of our visits will include the local Farmers Markets.  I’m very excited to see the range and variety, not just in other parts of the region, but also within the city of Seattle.  All of the markets so far have had friendly and welcoming atmospheres.  The produce and other products are bountiful and we've found that the purveyors love to talk to their customers about their products and their work.

The farmers and purveyors are one of my favorite aspects of shopping at the Farmers Market. As I quickly discovered during my first few trips to the market, the people selling the food are usually the people growing, raising and making all of the food and products, and they LOVE to talk about what they do. I have found this to be true of every market we have visited since.  After our first few visits to the market, Jeff and I were hooked. We started going every Saturday morning to get as much of our produce there as possible. We would also get other things from breakfast to flowers, bread to holiday decorations, pies to Emu meat. One of our favorite things each year was the free range, fresh, as in alive the day before it was delivered to our house, hormone and antibiotic free, Thanksgiving turkey. That hour every Saturday morning was the highlight of our week, and the winter months, when the market was closed, were rough. As I said earlier, one of our concerns was the cost of purchasing produces at the Farmers Market.  I’m not going to claim that it was cheaper than the store, because it wasn’t, but the prices were reasonable and I was putting my money directly into the hands of the person who was growing, raising or making the food I was eating. However, cost is a legitimate concern when shopping locally.

For the first two years after moving to Seattle, our finances were very tight. Shopping at the Farmers Market simply was not an option for us. This wasn't a choice; this was a fact of life. After I finished grad school and found a full time job, we had more of a disposable income and therefore we had more options available to us.  We could once again choose to spend our money locally rather than be limited to what we could afford at the grocery store.  For a time I was felt guilty for “letting our financial situation be an excuse” and “being lazy” about my food choices, but that really was not the case. I have come to realize that I really didn't have a choice. Purchasing local produce was not an option that was available to me for those two years. And, since that was the case, then what about the people that have far less than I did?  What options do they have? This is an issue that has weighed very heavy on my mind as of late, and one I wish to spend more time exploring moving forward.
If shopping at the Farmers Market is so great and wonderful and life changing, why don’t more people do it? It is very easy to judge others from my perspective, but everyone has their own perspective based on the challenges that he or she faces in his or her own life.

The reality is barriers exist in the world and in our lives that make it difficult for all people to be able to get to the healthy and nutritional food we need to survive. When I go to the Market each week, I look around and I notice that most of the people there look like me. They dress like me, they generally are of the same age range or older than I am, and they are of the same ethnicity that I am.  I would guess that anyone who has read to this point most likely has a similar perspective as my own, and that’s fine. But how do we foster change if we only reach out to the people that agree with us?  I believe that eating local food, and thus supporting a local, small scale food economy is the best solution for a sustainable future for humanity, but how do we get there? How can we make it possible for people who want to go to Farmer Markets but can’t? How do we make sure all people have access to the fresh, healthy, seasonal local food everyone needs? How do we all get there together?