Some things are more than the grocery store, and most are less. All locally grown stuff. I hate seeing how much foreign food is in big stores now. I methodically check most everything at them now, and you’d be surprised where some stuff comes from.
I personally think its awesome we still have people out there making their own stuff to sell, and not just doing the 9-5 to make money to go throw away in a box store where the money is transported to some corporate HQ. The FM I go is small but pretty good. Can get a big sack of peppers for like 4-5 bucks (2 each at box store), bread, jams, honey, meats, onions, tomatoes, ect. In fact I still order jerky from a place in WA I found at a FM when we lived there.
The reason I started doing this is…is because look at the box store where their food comes from. Lots of produce and canned goods are overseas or out of the US. I bought some jarred jalapenos today, and right next door to each other one was from india and one was from LA, USA. Same price and the front label made no mention of where the were from. Had to read the fine print on the back.
I love going to different Farmers Markets. Especially when you can smell the produce as you walk up to it.
Next to the farmer’s market, my favorite thing is the fresh sweet corn stands. Around here, at this time of year, you can’t turn a corner without running into a sweet corn or other type of fresh produce stand.
I’ve been buying eggs and hamburger from a local farm. I know they are from “free-range” chickens because I have to watch for them when I come up their driveway. The eggs taste better and have a different texture than store-bought eggs.
We’re lucky to have a large Farmer’s Market every Saturday and, in addition to plenty of locals, we have a couple of large Hutterite colonies in the vicinity who always show up with tons of produce. Plus loads of food venders offering up everything from Thai food to BBQ, buffalo jerky to homemade candies, you name it.
And later this month, the trucks will start rolling into town with fresh cherries from the Flathead Lake area, kind of a summer tradition around Montana.
Another summer favorite is fresh sweet corn. My dad would buy a couple of dozen ears from a roadside stand, us kids would sit on the porch and shuck it, and one of us would finally be instructed to “get the knife.” The knife was Dad’s navy K-bar from WWII which was stashed in his sock drawer and only came out to make corn off the cob. My dad would slice the tips off the kernels of corn into a black cast iron pan, squeeze the milk from the ears with the back off the blade, drop a full stick of butter into the pan, add a ton of coarse ground pepper, and slow simmer it for about half an hour. Then we’d sit and eat the whole pan. Larrupin’ good stuff. :happy:
My father and grandfather were career ag men. I only buy fresh from florida when I can, of course I know where they are grown and what to look for. Also, I’ve spent 13 years being paid by one of those big corporate companies that happens to have been quite good to me.
On one hand, I love going to them. Watching people, and playing handsies with my wife is one of my favorite things.
There are actually some good bargains at some of them. And there are some products of type or quality that are unavailable outside the market.
But some of them, especially the biggest ones, appear to be designed to skin stupid city people.
I am a farm kid, so am spoiled a bit when it comes to fresh produce. And am actually considering going into truck farming after I get done contracting. My work partner is looking into doing farmer’s markets and I am thinking about partnering with her if/when she does.
some of my friends are the trendy “city peeps”. They like to tell me about the bell peppers they bought and get bummed when I tell them that the stuff on my shelves come from the same farm 20 min south of town!
I’m a big fan of farmers’ markets. Thankfully there is a pretty good one, right in the heart of Louisville, about three blocks from where I live. I’m there every Saturday morning they’re open.
Typically the food not only tastes better but is much better for you as well due to proximity and not losing valuable nutrients from being picked too early to ripen on it’s journey. One of my biggest priorities in finding a place to live outside of Vegas is somewhere we can have our own garden to grow our food.
I’d definitely recommend checking out these videos if you’d like to educate yourself more about food, farming and what happens to our food in between growing it and where you purchase it. They’re all available on Netflix streaming.
Even green picked, GMO for appearance, veggies and fruit are “good enough” to ensure proper nutrition.
One of my pet peeves are citified idiots who take basic nutrition, ignore scale effects and then adopt so-called “organics” as some kind of religion.
Really, they take it waaaay too far.
But, hey, I got a couple of fucking fair dust encrusted bell peppers fer ya, that won’t kill your kids like the grocery store ones for $1000 each, if you’re interested.
I think most of you would be shocked at how many of those truck stands and farmer’s markets get their veggies at the same distributor as your grocery market does. And then mark it up 500%.
Most of what? What’s detailed in the titles I suggested or the fact that freshly picked vegetables are better for you? Have you seen them or are you just making a generalization?
At the least I’d much rather have heirloom, fresh picked garden vegetables that taste far better than the crap in the grocery stores and that ain’t bullshit. :dirol:
I’m a huge fan of the Farmer Markets! I think the food quality is usually far better than store bought and the money goes to local farmers. I would much rather buy local non-organic food than “organic” food produced in Mexico and I’d rather my money go to small business owners than supermarket corporations. Price can be better or worse than supermarkets depending on the product and time of year. The only thing I hate about it is the never ending stream of urban types who think they are saving the planet by shopping at the farmer markets with each and every one of them driving around in a BMW with an Obama sticker on it. These are the same idiots who parade around their hemp bags, but still use a brand new plastic bag to put the veggies/fruits in for each purchase. But my biggest peeve is watching these hippies stick their filthy hands into the free samples instead of using the toothpicks or tongs provided. Just because they believe in Kumbya and all that stuff doesn’t mean I want to share in God know what disease they carry. But the quality of the food and the fact that I’m voting with my wallet make it all worth it.
I do my part by wearing a LaRue, BCM, or Tactical Tailor hat and FLETC shirt, now if I could only get one for my 8 month old son.
I like them for those reasons, too. Don’t really notice any dirty types of hippies as they tend to stick inside the Austin city limits.
I cook a lot of our own meals (my wife has a mother who thinks cooking means sticking a freezer meal in the microwave), and I don’t really want to feed my family stuff coming from 3rd world countries or places with little to no standards. I want that money staying in the US not being sent overseas.
You also get some unique items there people have come with whereas the box stores are all big brand stuff thats mass produced. Theres a lady at ours that makes some awesome pasta that is much more flavorful than grocery store types. The grocery store wants like 2/ea for yellow or orange peppers. I get a bag full of 3-4 different types for 5.
Trying to feed our kids healthy items too. We don’t by sweets, really, no juice that is basically sugar water, no shitty cereals which is terrible for you, ect.
Another good place to shop are asian markets. I love oriental food and eat rice probably 3-4 times a week. A lot of that food is made overseas but its generally cheaper and better quality than grocery store stuff which is always short on asian food. One little section like 5ft wide and 7ft tall…most of it junk imitation stuff asians dont even eat.
Things like Savoy Cabbage or Cippolini Onions are just two examples of things that we found at the “Farmer Marts” that wouldn’t be found in most supermarkets and are real treats. I’m not studied enough to really say if the nutritional value of supermarket food is less than farmer market food, but I will say that the taste is usually far better. Growing up in Wyoming, our produce came from the supermarket and it was usually very basic. Now in California, the selection in food is mind boggling. There are millions of things I will fault about Kalifornia, but the culinary and agricultural diversity is not one of them.
When the wife and I were thinking about moving to Texas permanently (I was living in Houston for a year or so) we were looking at the Austin area in no small part due to the Farmer markets in the area.
funny I was going to quote about the same movies and also 2 more Food inc.
The Future of Food
these movies documentaries make me want to do more of my own hunting or getting local meat products etc… which I used to do on Maui never ate any main brand stuff really
Maui had great farmers markets
have not found good ones here in my area but going to start looking lucky we have a good store nearby that has good stuff
those movies really opened my eyes and got me thinking
why not post some proof you have and also proof of the downsides of what might be in or on those GMO items and also what its doing to the world food supply ! seriously watch them and tell me monsanto is a good company !
their comes a time when you have to also look at the other side of things and again look at what can be in or on the GMO crap that is not good
yes many take it way to far and agree about the farmers markets thats why you have to find good ones and get to know the farmers/growers
their is truth to age and nutrition though while yes grocery store stuff has plenty might as well get more and way way better taste in most cases and the other side whats on or in the the GMO grocery store stuff ? if you have to wash the heck out or peel it their goes some nutrition
DDT is just fine wont hurt you trust us !!! sound familiar
agree about organics can be like fat free products its a great buzzword
but organics done proper can be better in many ways not only what little nutrition gain their is but again WHATS NOT IN THEM !!!
I’d forgotten about Food Inc, I watch a lot of documentaries, but will definitely be watching Future of Food.
Regardless of whether people think the food grown locally is more nutritious or not I still like the fact that it takes a lot less fossil fuels to get them to market and that’s always a good thing in my opinion. Why buy fruits & veggies from Mexico when I can help support my local community and help keep Americans farmers working?
I can say on Maui things like Pineapple we used to pick taste nothing like any I have ever had on the mainland ?
same with when I would fish or other things fresh is just that fresh and age does not help fresh type foods
funny thing about bananas as when they are yellow on the tree and then cut down they are so so so much better but then again Maui had Apple Bananas that you can not get on the mainland and once you have them you wont ever want regular ones
also Maui is big on supporting local and keeping it local and I really want to do it more here and again I think its getting to know who does what at markets and knowing who is really bringing things to market that are truly fresh for those that have been to Maui and the road to Hana the local side stands are a good source for fresh stuff often you can go to some growers place and get what you want rather than waiting for the market
also the e coli and crap that seem to be tainting so much of our food these days makes me wonder how well things are handled etc…
we have friends that had their own meat company they grew the cattle without any hormone junk and let them eat good grass and such and the taste is superior to regular meat
going to start Colony in a hour once the kids are in bed
