Farmer's Market

Today my family and I went to our town's farmer's market for our first time. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. I mean, I obviously assumed there would be organic produce and probably some other home made goodies, but I was eager to find out if there would be anything that I'd really want to buy...or anything that I'd really be able to afford! Good news: there was!

I found that buying produce at the farmer's market was so much more exciting and motivating to eat better when it all is so fresh. I loved being able to see who grew what. I loved the hand-written signs made out of permanent marker on cardboard next to all of the veggies. I loved not having a list already made up of what ingredients I needed; but, instead, buying ingredients that looked good and feeling creative while thinking about all the possibilities of what I could do with, say, asparagus. I loved it!

I also bought a few veggie plants (bibb lettuce, cauliflower, and broccoli). There is definitely a sense of satisfaction gained from growing a nice fruit or veggie-bearing plant that provides a bountiful harvest throughout the season....when you can actually get it to grow! That's how I learned that there is still a huge sense of satisfaction in buying an already established, beautiful plant that you know has enough strength in it to endure a few missed waterings or hopefully even planting it in the wrong sun spot in the garden. Can you tell I'm not exactly a green thumb kinda gal? Anyway, so I bought these great, healthy-looking veggie plants today and I'm so excited about them. The garden that I have been putting off planting for weeks now suddenly already feels started and I'm excited to get these little plants in the ground. Plus, they were only $1.50/6 plants. Now I'm no avid plant-buyer, but I thought this was an amazing price! I almost felt like I was ripping the guy off that sold them to us, knowing how hard it is and how much attention it takes to grow a quality plant from a tiny little seed. At any rate, I'm thrilled to have gotten a start on my garden and I'm really looking forward to eating from it this summer.

Grass-fed beef was another item we were excited to purchase. We paid $6.49 for a pound of ground chuck. It is definitely more expensive than the slab you can pick up at your local Walmart, but I feel so much better about this beef. No hormones, no pesticides, no herbicides, no antibiotics. Just pure beef from cows raised on grass. I grabbed a pamphlet about their farm while I was there, and I learned quite a bit about the benefits of grass-fed beef from it. Check out their website at www.lickcreekbeef.com or some of their resources from the pamphlet (www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm or www.csuchico.edu/agr/grassfedbeef/ ). I'm not sure how often we'll be able to afford to eat grass-fed beef, but I would definitely like to eat it more often! Of course, I should probably taste it before I make such a bold statement, but with all of the health benefits from it, I can't imagine it wouldn't be delicious.

So, all in all, my trip to the farmer's market was very good. I do have one rant, though, before I sign off. There was a vendor with beautiful home-baked breads of every variety there. Dill bread, honey wheat bread, oatmeal bread, sourdough bread...you get the point. Thankfully, they also had ingredient lists on all of their products. The ingredients read beautifully until I saw the enemy: margarine. Are you kidding me?! I was both shocked and appalled. Saddened and disappointed. Outraged and infuriated. Ok, maybe the last part is a bit of an exaggeration, but I was indeed very upset. Why in the world would you take the time to bake home-made bread and use margarine of all things?! As badly as I would have liked to have bought some fresh bread from the market this morning, I had to simply walk away. I guess I really am changing, afterall, considering a few weeks ago I was clinging tightly to my own tub of margarine. I'm glad I can look back and see just how far I've come :)

And this was just one more step in my process of going unprocessed.