Simple pleasures of a local farmer's market

On my recent vacation to Florida, I asked my sister, a Floridian for decades, if there was a farmer's market nearby. I admit, I had the bug to get out and discover wonderful local produce, products and crafts.

"Sure", she droned. "Down the road about a mile, there's a great market called Brown's that has organic milk, raw honey and lots of stuff you like." She knows me well.

My sister and her family are Gulf Coast dwellers, planted comfortably in a nice suburban community of middle class houses that circle a man-made pond. Every morning storks and prehistoric sounding birds  wander aimlessly on the streets, asserting the right of first refusal to leave Dodge.

It came as a surprise that they are minutes away from commercial farms that grow much of our tomatoes, produce and fruit. And they have cattle ranches with cowboys. Really. In Florida.

When we arrived at Brown's Farmers Market, my sister, niece and I were drawn by the smells of fresh picked produce mounded on the wooden tables, organic milk from cows peering at us behind the fence line, and a fish monger of sorts: a friendly, talkative chap who agreeably discussed the pros and cons of fish farming vs deep water catches.

But my eyes were fixated on the shelves that lay ahead, with amber and caramel colored jars gleaming  under the streaming sunlight. Nirvana. Local honey. And homemade jam minimally processed of course, with cloth and ribboned caps, lined up in neat rows like homespun art that beckoned... choose me!

 

I live in the Philadelphia region, where we brag about the famous Reading Terminal Market.

Whereas Brown's has an open-aired roadside rustic appeal, Philadelphia's Market is an expansive melange of ethnic and traditional foods, cuisine, crafts and more. It's a cultural delight, a hodgepodge of sounds, smells, and tastes that satisfy any craving.  

Hey, Adam Richman, host of Best Sandwich in America, recently named DiNic's roast pork sandwich, the best sandwich in the country!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Reading Terminal Market, but give me the country road stands and farmer's markets any day. There I can linger over produce, chat with the farmer, and be lured in by the hypnotic dance of the honeybees skipping from flower to flower in the wide open fields.

For those who are curious where you might find a great Farmer's Market near you, check out: Local Harvest. Great organic food awaits.

Now, if I can only get used to those strange sounding crane-like birds in the morning...
Let us know your favorite market and why! Best ever market is ????

~Lynne
Garden Media Group
photo credit: GMG, Brown's Farmer's Market
Photo credit: Reading Terminal Market: Philadelphia.about.com & Wikipedia Commons

Food trends for the future

Here at the Garden Media Group we're always on the hunt for upcoming garden/green living trends.

Recently, treehugger.com posted an interesting article projecting food trends for 2020. The projections come from Spain from a group of food researchers at  azti-technalia, a marine and food technological center, tasked with developing a project to identify future food trends.

What they came up with is thought provoking and sure makes for interesting conversation! Even more so, it just may "revolutionize" the way we look at food, grow food, and "consume" food.  Self-fulfilling prophesy? You decide.

The article lists eight points; here are a few teasers in no particular order:
1. "Food telling"- (food with a message). Attractive, accessible info and transparency and more...
2."SuperSense"- Food as a multisensory experience
3."Slocal" - Quality consumption, awareness and responsibility about the impact of food consumption
4."EgoFood"-Express your identity
5."Made Simple"- KISS principle. Opting for the least time consuming choice.
6."Eater-tainment"- The food experience. Connecting emotions, needs and memorable experiences
7."Here & Now"- Facilitates lifestyles of urban dwellers who demand flexibility to optimize healthy lifestyle
8."My Health"- Personalized health.

So let us know what you think... your "takeaway".

Will these projections provoke you to take a more active stance on how food is packaged and labeled? Buy local? Grow your own veggies? Consume less?

Put down your donut and pick up an apple?

Feed us your comments. Love to spark "healthy" debate!

Lynne

Garden Media Group

Photo credit: Kennett Square Farmers Market and Wiki Commons

Homegrown #7 on LOHAS Key Insights

We love the LOHAS – Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability - organization and have been following them for years. Approximately 19% percent of the adults in the U.S., or 41 million people, are currently considered LOHAS Consumers.

Its 2010 LOHAS Key Insights conducted by the Natural Markeing Institute has identified 10 major trends for sustainability and “homegrown” is #7!

Here are a few on it’s top 10 list.

2. Transparency 2.0 — It is clearer than ever that proof, certification, and transparency of sustainability are here to stay. With the impending finalization of the updated FTC Green Guides and questions raised of even the stalwarts of green seals, the risk of not certifying, or self-certifying,is even more apparent.

3. Blue Is The Next Green...Still? — The business community knows that access to clean, fresh water is an impending, if not already existing, environmental and humanitarian crisis (and also is creating business opportunities). While some consumers know this in theory, it does not yet seem to be resonating at any great levels of concern or behavior. Consumers remain mostly concerned about issues most proximate to their lives — until access to clean freshwater affects them directly, this dynamic may not change.

4. Trash To Treasure — The recession has made being practical second nature, and many consumers are turning trash to treasure. No longer do we rush to cast away things we haven’t used in many years, or those that have minor bumps and bruises. Mending, repairing, bartering, reselling, and other similar practices have become second nature to many consumers. (Or making Felder Rushing's famous bottle trees!)

6. Strength In The Middle — Mainstream America is increasing its green behavior – another sign that sustainability has crossed the tipping point. As being sustainable becomes more accessible, more moderately-minded consumers get involved. Growth in behaviors is coming from the middle — LOHAS consumers remain the most committed, but are already doing most things green.

7. Homegrown — Consumers persist in taking matters into their own hands — they are planting gardens, canning, sewing, knitting and other such things to save money and be more independent. The role of locally grown and produced is also becoming more entrenched in society as we recognize the benefits of keeping dollars invested in our local communities.

Go to more sustainable treasures at LOHAS Forum Insights.

Suzi
Garden Media Group

Local or Not? That is the question.

I just read this on one of my favorite, hip blogs HeliumBalloon from my favorite Gen Y blogger pictured below:

Forbes interviews:
With the world population headed toward 9 billion by 2050, Texas author James McWilliams wants more genetically modified food and more subsidies to feed people.

In his new book, Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, McWilliams challenges conventional eating mores and cuts through what he believes to be layers of myth and misinformation.He writes that an imported tomato is more energy-efficient than a local greenhouse-grown tomato. And farm-raised freshwater fish may soon be the most sustainable source of protein.McWilliams encourages us to ask where our food comes from and how it's produced.

He agrees that in the 21st century, "we face a genuine agricultural dilemma, and that is to produce more healthy food on less land with fewer resources. I see the locavore response just as one response, and in the grand scheme of things it's a fairly small response.

When we look at how a crop is grown or how a certain food is produced, transportation is really a small amount of energy used to produce that particular food. It's about 10%, according to several studies. What that means is the energy sink is elsewhere, how that particular crop is produced."
I am certainly not saying that I agree, but it's an interesting perspective.

Read more of his interview with Forbes here.