The Farmer's Market

This morning, Autumn went to her first Farmer's Market. Every Saturday morning in the city of Buffalo, there is a farmer's market. You can buy everything from Pasta to Breads, fruits and vegetables. The only key is seasonality.

I'm currently reading a book called the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's an excellent read, and I would highly recommend it. It talks about eating and how industrialized food takes the story out of food. Think about it: in the Supermarket, Beef is Beef. There might be a little difference in price, but you can be assured that the Beef ate corn in tiny, cramped pens, and then found their way to the shelf. And the point is, there isn't anything wrong with that except for the intriguing fact that Cows don't eat corn. They eat grass. Admittedly, corn is in the grass family, but it's not grass.

Anyway, the other thing is, in the middle of January you can buy blueberries. It's currently blueberry season, so we can get them now. But it makes you wonder if it's a good thing that we can get them in January. The point is: is a red pepper grown in a greenhouse in Israel and then shipped to Buffalo a sustainable food? Does anyone even notice where their produce comes from -- or have all of the stories been stripped from our food?

Well, the best part of the farmer's market is that the stories are back. You can talk to the farmer about the food you buy. You can, if you want to, find out when the potatoes were taken out of the ground, when the apples were picked and what the cow ate. You can find out how they grew their lettuce, and then decide of getting Organic lettuce from California is really better for the environment.

I think about the world we'll leave Autumn. I wonder if when she's my age she'll still have the option of red peppers from Israel in January. But mostly I wonder if food will come with stories again.