Farmers' Markets: Shopping Local, Supporting Local & Eating Better

We try to do the majority of our shopping at the Farmers' Market but we do go to grocery stores for certain items. Sometimes we will get produce at the grocery if we can't find it at the Farmers' Market but I recently learned that the misting spray that conventional grocery stores use to mist their produce isn't just water like we all thought (read about that here and here) so my absolute love for the Farmers' Market has been reignited and reaffirmed.

The importance of shopping at Farmers' Markets can't be overstated. Less food miles, fresher food, and competitive prices along with supporting real people who live locally and who are doing a very difficult job. Shopping at Farmers' Markets usually means less pesticides and gentler fertilizers, which means healthier food, soil and people and less poison for the planet overall. For even further analysis, Food Revolution Network goes into more detail here.

Shopping at the Farmers' Market also means easily zero waste. For a lot of the big item produce you will buy, like heads of lettuce. squash, apples, broccoli, etc., just place them directly in your reusable grocery bag. Get some cloth bags (you can sew some if you're handy from old sheets, curtains, or t-shirts or you can be lazy like me and just buy them, such as these.) Use the smaller cloth produce bags for loose items like Brussel sprouts, berries, and cherry tomatoes. Also, I love that the produce at Farmer's Markets doesn't come with those annoying little stickers on it.

The stand where get a lot of our vegetables has baby spinach that comes in a plastic bag and I just transfer the spinach to a cloth bag, give them the plastic bag back so they can reuse it, and let the vendor know what I'm purchasing. The same goes those little plastic baskets that berries often come in- I put the items in my cloth bag and hand the plastic basket back to the vendor. Even with cartons of eggs, we take the eggs home and return the cartons for no waste (even though egg cartons are compostable if need be). You can also often find high quality bread in paper bags at the Farmers' Market, which is something I struggle with at conventional grocery stores. I have also saved up all of our rubber bands and given them back to the farmers to reuse in the past.

Lastly, the Farmers' Market is amazing because if the climate crisis escalates, food will be hit hard and our crops will be affected. We want to support these small farmers who are doing so much good and know that we are investing in our future.

If you find that you don't have the time to go shopping at the Farmers' Market every week, consider subscribing to a local CSA or a service like The Neighborhood Grocer (and receive a beautiful box like the one in this picture!) They do all the work for you and you can still get all of the goodness of the Farmers' Market along with all of the convenience of delivery or easy pickup.

Thanks always for reading! All pictures of the gorgeous produce were taken by and are part of The Neighborhood Grocer.