‘Tis the season for Farmer’s Markets! The one in our town begins this Saturday and I can hardly wait. Just the thought of a little country gathering of backyard farmers selling their surplus warms my heart. If only these lovely products came from an organic garden grown by anyone in the area.
Farmer’s Market’s, organic food, and lady bugs are all very romantic ideas. They take us back to simpler times of small town goodness when Mary might’ve had enough apricots to bake an extra 25 pies to sell. Look carefully at the photo above and there are some tell tale signs to watch for when visiting your first sale of the season.
- Please notice that all the crops pictured above don’t take the same number of days and temperatures to ripen all at once. Mixed winter and summer crops. Perfectly wrapped bundles of summer herbs. This farmer has many farm hands and a huge cold storage barn to pick, clean, size, and store all this produce.
- No scars on the produce. Although this group isn’t the most perfect, it’s pretty close. Our broccoli is just starting to head and in no way resembles the perfect heads of cauliflower, uniform and perfectly white.
- There is absolutely no dirt present on any of the vegetable roots. Not sure how they pulled that off. Maybe hydroponically grown???? That makes this operation even more expensive and labor intensive.
- No visible signs of pest damage. Many pesticides sold in hardware stores are not available for commercial use. If you do find the perfect gardener with amazing fruits and vegetables, ask them to name the chemicals used. If they mention “Sevin”, walk away.
Although tempting, the evidence above doesn’t point to food grown in a small garden just outside town. It was more likely purchased from Costco for resale.
Now, I’d be all over this stand. If you’re wondering where the person is that grew all this, they’ve probably run home to water the vegetables they have growing for next week’s products.
Dirty roots, untrimmed produce. Beautiful. With this much to sell, their “garden” is more than hobby size. They run a nice sized farm with lots of help. This is what your Farmer’s Market fruits and vegetables should look like. Carrots, cabbage, and celery DO grow at the same time of year. The bell peppers don’t and are hard to store. (Probably purchased elsewhere.) It’s up to you to KNOW your growing season to make the best purchases. Freshly picked food IS worth the extra money.
In 2022, when things were beginning to return to normal, our town re-opened our version of a farmer’s market. Over the moon with excitement, I wondered what would be featured? Local onions and garlic grown an hour to the south? Fresh cheese produced 30 minutes to the east? Not familiar with the local growing season at the time, I thought of the Central Valley of California.
Strawberries, apricots, and peaches might be ready in June. Too late for lettuce. Tomatoes wouldn’t even be red yet. With fruits and vegetables dancing through my thoughts, I grabbed a little extra cash, ready to fill the frig with freshness.
Oy. Vey.
When I arrived, the lack of tables was the first thing that hit me. I remember four little tables. One lady was selling her eggs. At least there was something identifiably fresh. I bought one dozen for $4.
At the next booth, a woman had been up all night baking tiny little loaves of fresh banana nut bread. She also sold precious bouquets of lavender. Too cute to pass up, I bought one of each.
The third table was exactly what I feared. The sign read “Stanko’s Locally Grown Farm Fresh Organic Fruits and Vegetables”. His table was swarming with unsuspecting customers buying everything from apples to watermelons. His produce was tired. June 1 doesn’t see fresh apples in our little town. Heck, apricots are early and they aren’t ready for another three weeks. Watermelons are ready long after July 4th has come and gone.
I observed the professional boxes. Red and ripe tomatoes were way past their prime. No sun spots or blemishes on any, they had survived many other farmer’s markets on the way to ours. Everything on this table was as tired as the heavy man with the cane taking money.
The worst part of all was that I KNEW this farm name from decades of life in the Central Valley. A shady guy with a reputation in his own town, this overweight swindler was there to make a fast buck. And, it was working.
“Hi there! Wow! Tomatoes! How did you get them to grow so quickly?” I asked with a smile.
“Well, we’re from Central California.”
True enough. Except that tomatoes are not ripe in Central California on June 1. I suspect his came straight from Mexico.
“Wow, you must have quite the crew.”
Nope. Just me and my boy. We stay busy growing everything you see here,” he replied, with a smile smoother than the skin on his un-farmer-like hands.
And with that, another little old lady handed him $20 and told him to keep the change.
Be careful at Farmer’s Markets. Organic corn has worms. Tomatoes are often scarred and misshapen. The best fruits and vegetables don’t grow in uniform size and shape. The very best food is picked from the tree or bush and eaten within an hour.
With all that being said, HHH and I are applying for a table this year. With enough food to feed an army, we’ll be donating some and putting proceeds from the rest towards Cruise #2, already in the works.
Whatever you do today, research Farmer’s Markets in your area. In our area, there’s a market every day of the week. We plan to visit each one and decide which little town has the most authentic. Forget about taking those fruit and vegetable pills. Fresh is best!
More tomorrow.