(I’m guessing it goes in this forum because it’s about food. Sorry if I guessed wrong.)
I live in NYC and there’s a farmer’s market in my neighborhood every Saturday. Some Mennonite farmers from Pennsylvania sell fruits, veggies, and baked goods. I enjoy shopping there but I wonder how it really compares. Is the produce fresher? Is the farmer’s market supposed to be better for the environment because the produce is largely coming from nearby? But obviously they are not actually growing all this stuff in Pennsylvania in February, right? And they offer a few things like brand name baby carrots in sealed bags, and pineapple, so they’re just buying and reselling that. I know there are farmer’s markets in the city that offer a huge selection of obscure delicacies, but mine is small with just the basics. Is their produce really any different from what I can get in my grocery store? I admit I haven’t looked into comparing prices, but I’m more interested in if there’s a difference in quality. Does anyone have any insights? Thanks!
I think many farmer’s markets deal in the concept over the substance.
That said, I enjoy shopping at our local farmer’s markets, which enforce the “you must grow it yourself if you want to sell it here” concept. Some of the farmers I know personally, and I am confident that they picked their produce a very short time ago, in contrast to the local supermarkets, where most produce comes from 2000 miles away and was picked sometime this century.
Some food items are incredibly cheap at our market when in season (a humongous bunch of basil for $1), but not everything is cheaper than the supermarket, so wise shopping is called for unless the concept is your only guideline.
Of course, if our local supermarkets ever got smart and decided to carry local produce at reasonable prices – something that seems totally foreign to them – it would change things significantly.
Well, that’s the idea. Fresher, and locally grown. Plus the social aspect. Our FM is a real scene every week. A lot of people end up going there for the prepared foods, too, some of which you can’t get near here, but some competes with the bakeries and fast food places, too.
What goes on at your particular FM, only the guys selling there can tell you. Perhaps you should ask them, although there is no way to know if they’re telling the truth.
Difference in quality depends on which vendor you’re buying from. The people who have the big boxes blatantly labeled “Vine Ripened Tomatoes” or the 50# mesh bags of corn, it’s the exact same stuff you’d get from the grocery store. The guy with the pickup bed full of corn he says was picked last night, or the one with plastic bags of blackberries whose arms are scratched to hell…yeah, there’s a big difference in quality and freshness. Usually a pretty big difference in price too, at least around here.
The produce at a Farmer’s market was likely fully or nearly fully ripe when it was harvested. Much better flavor and higher nutritional content is the result. Produce picked for the normal grocery delivery chain ripens in the truck, on the shelf, or even in your home.
The prices can be better, although smart shopping is required to ensure that. For me, though, it’s the “buy local” issue. I shop at the booths of the farms that I know are local. Plus, there are a couple of booths with local-made products that I can’t get in the stores - the woman who sells homemade tamales and green chile sauce that she makes at her home, for example.
And it may totally be an expectation effect, but I think the food tastes better from the farmers market.
I often see things that grocery stores don’t carry – heirloom tomatoes, teeny little fingerling potatoes, unusual varieties of lettuce, etc. And there are always a couple of people selling fabulous bouquets of flowers you’re never going to see in a floral shop.
It’s the delicate things I usually find better there - heirloom tomatoes, as mentioned. Peaches, for sure (I haven’t had a supermarket peach with any flavor since I was a kid!). I haven’t noticed obscure lettuces, but I’ll look for those next time. My theory is that it’s fairly unproblematic to carry a bushel or three of actually ripened-all-the-way on the vine tomatoes 50-100 miles in the back of a pickup truck, as opposed to hundreds of crates of them in the back of a semi for 1000 miles.
Plus, it’s about as close as I can get to the feel of a real European or Mediterranean marketplace without going to Chinatown, so it’s just plain fun! I love talking with the people who grew the stuff, getting recipe ideas and just generally swapping tales and good vibes as much as good food. And I like the idea of supporting small local growers to keep doing their thing. Gives me warm fuzzies, it does.
We have a nice little market that operates outdoors weekly during the spring and summer, then moves indoors and less frequently during the late fall and winter. The market’s organizers have a policy that all vendors have to be within a 50-mile radius and raise or make their own products. It’s run by a board whose members are local and elected by the farmers, so there’s some cooperation, which is helpful.
So we get fresh produce from the Dickinson College farm, as well as some other local farms and orchards; amazing meats of all kinds (and the Amish guy’s barbecued-on-site chicken is expensive, but a hell of a lot better than anything Colonel Sanders ever offered); cheeses, yogurt and pudding from local dairies; and baked goods that may make me believe in God again. One of the local bicycle mechanics volunteers his time to do inspections, there are often musicians performing, and the occasional massage therapist brings their chair for five-minute chair massages. Volunteers also do face-painting and I think the market organizers want to introduce more programs for kids, which would be great. This will be the third year the market has been in operation, so the organizers are looking for more programming to attract customers, and to encourage them to stay longer.
One thing I like about it is that, despite the somewhat nuts-and-berries vibe, people are generally pretty respectful. You won’t find militant vegetarians passing judgment on us omnivores, and the vendors are helpful when it comes to cooking advice and recipes.
The farmers in my local farmer’s markets really do grow their own produce. I believe there is a California farmer’s market organization that enforces this. You don’t see things like out-of-season tomatoes or out-of-region pineapples here. For example, I was at a farmer’s market today in which there was a lot of citrus fruit and some apples (probably from storage), but the only peaches were dried.
We’ve got three markets within a few miles of each other each weekend. Everything has to be grown locally, which is no big problem in the Bay Area. The prices are definitely better, since a bunch of stalls are competing with each other - competing with others right across the way. There is also a better selection, since you can stroll the market to find the best/cheapest combination.
The supermarkets have begun displaying the local origin of their produce also, including some specific growers, so it has had a good effect in that respect.
And our supermarkets are usually pretty good. When we first moved out here from NJ, the kids and I went to a supermarket while waiting to get into our hotel. We spent about 15 minutes awed at the produce.
My local farmer’s market runs six days a week most of the year and Saturdays only during the winter months. Everything is grown or made locally. This being the off season in my area, I got some dried peaches and salt pork today.
Here in my small town, it’s mostly fruits and veggies, but oh, how good they are. I go to certain vendors for certain produce: there’s the tomato guy with the best tomatoes since what we grew on the truck farm when I was a kid, the sweet corn family whose peaches and cream corn really rocks, the fruit man with peaches that you want to eat over the kitchen sink to catch the juice and the green bean lady, from whom I also get pepper bacon and new potatoes to complete the dish.
One of the things that I really like is the varieties as the season progresses. The tomatoes from the first of the season are a different variety than those later in the summer; the sweet corn and melons make a similar progression, exposing me to the yumminess of vegitation that I would never find in my local supermarket.
