Eating Local: A Trip to the Farmers' Market:20

We went to a local farmers' market today. Notice I didn't say "our" local farmers' market, because there are several--open on different days of the week--right around here. The one we chose today was in my old New Haven neighborhood. We lived in the Westville section of New Haven for 9 years beginning in 1987. We were on a beautiful old street--just one block long--that looked like something straight out of the fifties, even though the houses were all built around 1910. In fact it looked so much like the fifties that this past July, the film crew for the newest Indian Jones movie picked that street--right near our old house--for filming what I think is meant to be Mr Jones' house. (But I digress.)

The market was set up at the far western edge of Edgewood Park, a rambling, handsome old park that gives the neighborhood a lot of its character. So here we were, driving from our house 10 minutes away in the 'burbs to a farmers' market on our old urban turf. The market was small, six or seven produce stands and a man with a small table of books about Judaism, which seemed oddly out of place. But the rest of the stands were packed with all the fruits and vegetables of the season. Tomatoes, of course, many varieties and colors. Peppers, collards, green beans, eggplants--some no bigger than a big guy's thumb--herbs, corn, broccoli, mesclun, potatoes, blackberries, blueberries (yep, end of season), lemonade, breads, pies, spices. There was even a meat table that we, veggies that we are, avoided. It was fabulous! We came home with enough vegetables for the week. The prettiest was our collection of heirloom tomato varieties:That's a bunch of cilantro right next to it. Oh, and a clock taken apart to have it's battery changed in the background. If you look closely, you can see that the tomato basket has several small red peppers of an unusual variety mixed in. That's a pepper right up there at 10 o'clock. It is supposed to be very thick-fleshed and sweet. Yum!

I'm reading a really engrossing book right now. It's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. You may recognize her name as the author of The Bean Trees or The Poisonwood Bible. This book is non-fiction and chronicles her family's attempt to live for one year on local food. I'm five or six chapters in, and enjoying it very much. She uses her usual way with words to deliver a short-course education on Americans and their relationship--of lack of it--to their food sources. And to the plight of the small family farm. Thanks, Mary Ellen, for lending this one to me! I'll report back here when I've finished it.

As I give more and more thought to where my family's food comes from, I find myself standing in the store just horrified. Guatemala, Ecuador, California, Mexico. This is how we manage our all-fruits-and-vegetables-all-the-time lifestyle. Growing up, we pretty much ate what was in season. And that was in NY! I see that it's important to get back to that way of thinking and living. As Ms Kingsolver says, there is a cost associated with watermelon in winter, the cost in fossil fuel of shipping a fruit "the size of a toddler" to your doorstep. I think she says the average ratio of calories consumed in shipping to calories of edible food in the US is 87 to 1. So tonight, it will be local tomatoes, corn and collards for dinner.

Just as an update, Natalie has been off to college now for two and a half weeks and having a great time. I'm proud to report that she is the Student Government House Environmental Representative for her dorm. One of her courses is Environmental Challenges and Politics in the Developing World. She's having to keep a one-month journal of every single thing she uses, eats or otherwise consumes or throws away as part of the course. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about that when she's done. Maybe she can guest-blog!