I've been feeling rather unSeattlish living five blocks from the weekly farmers' market and not taking advantage of it, so this morning S-Boogie, Little Dude, and I walked over to check it out. I left ten dollars poorer, carrying three apples, four tomatoes, a head of lettuce, and a loaf of bread in the stroller basket, and feeling underwhelmed. I like the idea of buying fresh organic produce and supporting local farmers, but I'm not so crazy about the prices. The lettuce was a good deal--a dollar for the head--but the bread was four bucks for the loaf. I mean, it's good bread, but seriously, four bucks?
I'm also unimpressed by the lack of variety at this market. There are maybe thirty stands and at least a third of them sell flowers, which are very pretty but for the most part inedible. The rest all sell variations of the same dozen or so vegetables--which, I suppose, duh, is what you get when you're dealing with fresh produce that's actually grown in the season it's supposed to be grown in. I guess the problem is that I'm too indoctrinated by two and a half decades of eating pretty much whatever I want year-round to accept that all I can eat in May are leeks, garlic, and green onions. Or maybe it's just that this isn't a great farmers' market. Do other markets have more variety this time of year?
In unrelated news, the man selling newspapers in front of Safeway knows Little Dude's blog name. Hi, Mr. Newspaper Man, are you reading?
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ReplyDeleteWhat agriculture is near Seattle?
Depends on the market, but you're right that the whole locally grown produce idea is going to limit your diet. I think of it as an interesting cooking challenge, myself. If you look up Seattle Farmers Markets online, you can get a better sense of which neighborhoods offer the best -- and there's always Pike Place. :)
ReplyDeleteTh, we have tons of agriculture. Most of Eastern Washington produces fruit crops, as well as some excellent wine; we West-siders have vineyards, dairies, local free range meat, berries in the Skagit Valley, vegetables all around my hometown in the Snohomish Valley...