National Farmer’s Market Week: Aug 2-8
I found out through The Inadvertent Gardening that next week is National Farmer’s Market week. Celebrate National Farmer’s Market week by heading to your local farmer’s market tomorrow and next weekend (and every weekend in the summer).
If you don’t know about a farmer’s market in your area head over the Local Harvest to find one. Farmer’s markets are such a great way to get involved in your local economy and to encourage people in your community to grow healthy food.
Unless I’m working, I head down to the farmer’s market every Saturday morning. I always buy something from my favorite vendors and I try to buy from all of the new vendors I notice to encourage them to keep coming back.
Our farmers market carries just about everything: veggies, fruit, bread, baked goods, meat, poultry, eggs, crafts, soaps, herbs, teas and plants. Not to mention the produce is the freshest you can find!
I’m always heading home loaded with fresh local goodies for a weeks worth of meals and some canning for the winter.
Do you frequent your local farmer’s market? What do you like about it?
I love visiting the farmers’ markets and do so year around :-) In the winter especially, when visitors are scarcer, I make a point to support all the farmers and get delicious food. One of the best parts of the markets is actually *knowing* where and from whom my food comes from. Not just in the sense of X farm, but the individuals themselves, knowing about them a bit, their faces, their likes/dislikes, etc. And I’m more eager to try new veg/fruit and new preparations of them at the suggestion of the vendors. They have great ideas on how to use what they sell, and its almost always delicious. Plus, the quality of the veg is amazing most of the time. Although I do have a CSA that I belong to, I get my “bulk veg” for storage from the farmers markets (and the farms of those vendors directly) and use the CSA for “daily eating” as much as I can. Ack, this is long-winded, but seems I can’t say enough good things about the farmers’ markets!
.-= Mangochild´s last blog ..Venturing Into Vegetable Pickling and an…. Incident =-.
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I don’t go to the local farmers market much, just because I don’t really need to. Too much of my own stuff to deal with. I will go for a peck of bell peppers to freeze in the fall. I really want to go check out the regional market in the big city. I’ve heard it’s pretty awesome.
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Our local farm market is pretty much selling what I have growing in the backyard. I called to see if I could set up a table to sell honey, but they said I had to have business insurance. Still chewing on that one…
to Beegirl's comment
I go to the farmer’s market every weekend, and sometimes I hit the one on Wednesdays as well. It’s crucial for me to frequent the farmers market since I don’t have a garden (merely a wish, but hopefully reality come next spring). During the summer, I can get by with getting all of my produce (as well as eggs and bread, and sometimes meats) at the farmer’s market. I also did a “challenge” with other food bloggers where we only ate what we could find at the farmer’s market that weekend. It was a complete success!
.-= The Kitchenette´s last blog ..Market Week 2009: Herbed Scrambled Eggs with Toast =-.
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We don’t particularly care for our local farmer’s market. Sometimes it seems an awful lot more like a craft fair than a farmer’s market. I wish they would limit more those kinds of artsy type booths. There is a *huge* farmer’s market about 45 minutes away from our home, but with hubby’s rotating schedule we don’t often have Saturdays off which makes the trek a bit more difficult. Where we used to live (I find myself saying this phrase a lot lately) there was a fantastic farmer’s market within walking distance and another one that was a half hour away (right next to the co-op we shopped at).
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We have a few craft booths at our market, but it seems like they don’t sell much. I’ll see them there for a week or two and then I don’t see them again. I do like the people selling soap and balms, it’s nice to be able to buy local non-toxic products.
to Susy's comment
We def go to the farmers’ market. I like the variety of stuff and being able to see what truly is in season at any given time. I especially like chatting with the folks who bring their stuff. They have interesting takes on most everything!
.-= warren´s last blog ..Our Quebec drain =-.
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I also like chatting with people about what kinds of veggies grow well for them in our area. The market sellers are a great gardening resource!
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