Jiggity-Jig

To market, to market... The first farmer's market of the year, that is. This is the first year that I will be taking advantage of our local farmer's market. For at least a year I've seen the signs up advertising it and kept thinking that I should check it out. Well, since reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (see side bar websites), patronizing the farmer's market has become more than a passing thought.

Perhaps you want to ask, "But Cotton, why should I patronize my local farmer's market? What does that have to do with going green?"
Well, I am merely a new convert to all of this, so I probably won't be able to convince you with all the important facts involved in food politics, but here are some things you can consider:
1. Where does the food you eat come from?
Bananas? (My favorite indulgent food to talk about because it's so obvious.) Bananas come from tropical locales. I live in the Rocky Mountains. People around here go to Banana Republics when they're taking an expensive and exotic vacation. Many fossil fuels used to bring them to your table. (Incidentally, I love bananas. It has been a real sacrifice to give up bananas. So I make sure I eat them whenever someone else makes fruit kabobs. This sacrifice has had the added effect of making bananas extra tasty when I get them.)
Watermelon in January? Those came to you from somewhere where it's hot in January. (ie not the Rocky Mountains)
2. What kind of farming methods were used to cultivate and harvest your food?
Does your food come to you from a large agribuisiness corporation whose emphasis is on the bottom line and not on taste and sustainability? Is it a monoculture farm where crops are never rotated and therefore continually sucking all the nutrients out of the soil requiring ever increasing amounts of artificial fertilizer, chemical pest control, and gene manipulation?
3. Who does your purchasing dollar benefit?
Some CEO and a handful of stock holders? Migrant laborers working for pennies and living in Steinbeckian circumstances?

When you go to the farmer's market you will get:
Fresh food that's in season from right down the street grown on small(er) farms that are usually family owned. You can ask the farmer about his or her farming practices. Most are using organic methods though they probably won't be "certified." Your dollar will go to this farmer and his family who lives in your community. I even noticed a booth run by a couple of youths earning money for an educational trip to Washinton, D.C. next year. Another booth had a ten year old selling eggs. My grocery dollar is helping local youth learn responsibility and money management. Brilliant!
Another fun thing you'll get from the farmer's market is other cool items locally crafted like woodcarvings and jewelry.
I just really appreciate the sense of community I got from going to the farmer's market and feeling connected to the people who grew my food for the week.

Here's what I bought this week:
A bag of greens
Kale
Turnip greens (never tried these before--what an adventure!)
Carrots
Radishes
A strawberry plant
A lavender plant
Artisan bread

These were my indulgences:

Wild caught Alaskan King Salmon (not exactly local, but the guy gets it from his commercial fisherman dad. Also, not exactly cheap--it is, after all Wild caught Alaskan King Salmon)
Pain au chocolat (amazing!)
a dark chocolate truffle
necklace and two pair of earrings ($9-what a deal!)

Also saw:
The booth for the Co-housing or Eco-village that's starting to take shape in this county. (see the poll on the side bar)

Here are some websites I picked up:
hightideseafoods.net (the salmon)
diva-bella.com (the necklace)
utahvalleycommons.com (the eco-village)
grittypretty.blogspot.com (the blog of the founder of the Provo Farmer's Market-surprisingly, or not, my generation. Here's a photo of her husband Oliver (who is a permaculture activist--a subject for another blog, perhaps??).

To find your own farmer's market go here:
http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/
Or try google-ing "farmers markets" and your town.
I can hardly wait until next week!


PS We ate the salmon last night for dinner. It was EXCELLENT!

Target Practice

Get out your darts. You're gonna need them.

I HATE FLUORESCENT LIGHT BULBS!! (throw darts or other projectiles now)

I know! I know! Going fluorescent is such an easy change to make. They save money and energy. "If every American family substituted 5 compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) for incandescent, it would be equivalent to taking 8 million cars off the road for a year." (quoted from Aimee Lee Ball's article in the Feb. 2008 edition of the Oprah Magazine). But I cannot tell a lie. I hate them.

No matter which fluorescent "color" I choose, their light seems unnatural and makes my eyes hurt. They make my rooms look like cold waiting rooms rather than warm, welcoming places. They give my husband a headache and don't fit in many of my vintage lamps. They take several minutes to "warm up" and because of their mercury content must be disposed of in a special way (which my recycle center does not offer*).

To ease my Guilty Green Conscience, I have put them in our porch lights and in the basement. I even put one in the bathroom for non-blinding, middle-of-the-night bathroom use, but my living room and bedroom lamps remain incandescent.

Oops! Gotta run! I can hear the Greeny lynch mob coming to tie me (with their fair-trade, hemp ropes) to the tree I hugged this morning.

*Green Note: IKEA has started a CFL return program for proper recycling if you happen to be in an area with an IKEA