Farmers Market: Locally Grown is Better!

 

 

Farmers Markets continue to increase in popularity — people are really catching on that locally grown is better for your health! Plus, there’s a positive community-vibe at your neighborhood Farmers Market that is unquestionably enjoyable.

But should you be fitting-in a weekly visit to your local farmers market, into your already-busy schedule? Is it really worth it?

Make a Weekly Farmers Market Outing Part of Your New Healthy Habits

I strongly encourage to revisit your local farmers market and consider making it a part of your weekly routine.

The first time you visit your local farmers market, you might notice:

• ⊙ how reasonable many of the prices are for organic, locally grown produce
• ⊙ how friendly the farmers are to the shoppers
• ⊙ how relaxed the environment is — often there is live music playing in the background as you browse and shop, plus plenty of fresh air and room to stroll around in!

Here’s the deal: if you’re serious about improving your health — and really, what’s more important? — then you need to find solutions for getting more fresh vegetables into your daily diet. Period. End of story.

The better the quality of vegetables you can obtain for your kitchen, the more of a positive impact it will have on your own health.

At a regular grocery store, your cucumber may have been shipped-in from Central America and might have pesticides.

Why would you want to eat a cucumber that was picked 5 weeks ago in another country when you could eat one that was picked yesterday afternoon a few miles away!?

Preparation is the Key to Permanently Improving Your Health

As I often point out on this site, it has been proven relentlessly that the way to make new habits “permanently stick” is to prepare internally first. Before you can pick up a new habit, you might need to create a time budget to see how you can make it work, and in what ways you might be tempted to get in your own way! You must ask: “if I were going to screw this up, how would I do it?”

Knowing beforehand where, when, and how you’ll be tempted to drop the good habit will help you stay in the game! And so it is with your weekly farmers market: it’s a really good idea to have a plan. For example, maybe if you set the canvas bags and ice chest in your car the night before, you’ll be more likely to get up early the next morning instead of sleeping through it!

In our home, after the farmers market, it’s time to wash, dry, and bag all of the vegetables in anticipation of all the green smoothies — and super salads — in the week ahead. I’m not going to lie to you: fresh food takes more effort (it’s not as easy as fast food). I have a whole system for cleaning all of the leafy green vegetables, that involves two types of bags. I try to do it efficiently, but sometimes it’s a bit arduous. I can understand why people are just tempted to eat take-out burritos and pizzas during the week! Healthy takes some work, okay? But it’s do-able, and it’s worth it.

What You Can Take Home from Your Local Farmers Market

The more you and your neighbors spend at your local businesses the more your local economy will thrive. You’re going to spend the money anyway, so why not spend locally?

We scored some beautifully fresh produce yesterday at our own local Certified Farmers Market in Palm Springs, California.

 
Our once-a-week outing to the Farmers Market is pretty serious stuff actually — we have to stock up on a week’s worth of fruits and vegetables for all of those green smoothies we’ll be drinking! Here’s just some of what we picked up:

• ▸ 1 zuchinni squash, butternut squash, and yellow star squash
• ▸ 2 pounds of free range, grass fed turkey breasts
• ▸ 4 meyers lemons
• ▸ 2 red and 1 yellow bell pepper
• ▸ 1 bag of salad greens
• ▸ 1 head of boston lettuce
• ▸ 1 bunch of swiss chard
• ▸ 1 bunch of baby asparagus
• ▸ 2 outdoor hydroponic tomatoes
• ▸ 1 bunch of purple radishes
• ▸ trays of fresh microgreens and sunflower sprouts
• ▸ our local chicken farmer has the best organic eggs I’ve ever tasted!
• ▸ and as much spinach, kale, celery and cucumber as we can carry!

If you have any questions about produce — how to cook it, or the specific ways that a particular vegetable is good for your body — you can ask the vendors and farmers themselves — they are often good-natured, patient and helpful — or most farmers markets have a help booth where they’re happy to answer any questions you might have.

 

 
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