I’ve decided to live my life a little greener these days. This started by replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. Using cloth shopping bags rather than plastic ones, and purchasing home cleaning products that are eco-friendly.
Today I decided to try shopping at a local farmer’s market. Everyone knows that trucking produce from some small town in the middle of the country to my local grocery store wastes a lot more energy then buying produce from a local farmer who is driving only a few miles to sell his goods. So I went online and found a farmer’s market in my area. I found one about two miles from my home. It was actually a rather pitiful market. Only three local farmers, one selling herbs, one selling flowers, and one selling produce. But there were quite a few people buying, even at 11 o’clock in the morning.
The produce was as pretty as I’ve ever seen it. Broccoli that is supposed to be green was green, bananas bright yellow, and strawberries as red as I’ve ever seen. Since this was my first visit I bought only two items, corn and strawberries. I paid $6.75 for a quart of strawberries and six ears of corn. My local Giant, the grocery store where I usually shop, is selling corn on the cob for 50 cents an ear. I paid $2.50 for six ears at the market, a savings of 50 cents. Strawberries are selling for $5.99 at Giant. I paid only $4.00 for a basket much larger than I’d purchase at the store, saving another $1.99.
I definitely plan to start buying produce from the farmer’s market. It only runs from May until September, but the produce is as fresh as it comes, and even without the cost savings I know I’m doing my little part to help the environment.
I love farmer’s markets too. Their produce is almost always higher quality than most stuff I find at major grocery stores and the prices are reasonable.
I also like the fact that the produce is only being shipped from local farmers, versus taking long transport hauls across country, etc. It’s a much more efficient (and economically friendly) way to shop.
Farmers markets tend to have better produce because it doesn’t have to be so hardy to survive a long journey. Tomatoes taste like tomatoes, strawberries taste like strawberries, and when you peel the husk off your corn you might find little corn worms!
You’re also more likely to wash the produce, which helps reduce the risk of E.coli outbreaks and the like.
Good for you! I also plan on shopping at the farmer’s market in town. I’m tired of going to Whole Foods to see that all of the produce is from South America.
This might be of some interest:
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
As the site says “Real food, real farmers, real community”
Thanks for the link to Local Harvest. A friend of mine just became a shareholder to a local farm in VA.