Shop farmers first!Ok, I'm not saying any decent person should get 100 percent of his produce from the market. It is possible, of course, if we re-learn the old skills of "putting things up." But that's for another day. For now....
Before you head to Whole Foods or Albertson's for your pre-made pasta salad, seafood, or exotic fruit - swing by the farmer's market first. Start with the most local, most organic farmers and see what you can check off your list.
Depending on your market, you may even find bread, cheese, meat, eggs, and canned wonders, like pickles and sauces.
As for us, we wake up at 4am, pack the car, and leave the farm at 4:45am to drive 2 1/2 hours in hopes it will be worth the gas money. Often, when we leave market we will stop in at Central Market or somesuch place for our fancy items, like jasmine rice and potato chips. And with all the folks shopping there, we usually muse about how glorious and sustainable the world would be if even half those people shopped the farmers' markets first. Small farmers would sell out of eggplant, eggs, hot and sweet peppers, goat meat and beef, onions, herbs, and all the other wonderfully cared-for, organically grown food that literally make or break livelihoods.
It just makes sense. We can't leave everything up to the big grocers, big bankers, big insurance companies, big governments in our world. It's an exchange of freedom for convenience. And a loss of power to influence our future in any real way, if we choose the ready-made lifestyle of the majority here. That does not give me peace of mind.
On the other hand, here's something that does:
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