Bright hues, fragrant scents, and the bustle of hawking vendors and eagle-eyed housewives. It could be the Middle East, the French countryside, or Midtown Manhattan. Across the globe, farmers’ markets lure with their charm and choices of fresh food.
Growing up in spanking-new suburban housing my family didn’t live far from local farmlands. My mother used to drive us to a nearby farm stand named Styer’s where freshly picked fruits and vegetables lay heaped in bins and the plank floors were strewn with straw and caked mud. I still remember how in the summer the backseat would be loaded with bags of sweet corn blushing peaches and juicy tomatoes; the fall harvest brought pumpkins crisp apples and fragrant pears.
Nowadays I buy my produce in the supermarket but the results are often disappointing. My husband complains the grapes are tasteless and the peaches degenerate with frightening rapidity from rock-hard to bruised mush. But what should I expect? As Barbara Kingsolver notes in Animal Vegetable Miracle “The average food item on aUS grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacation.” Her husband Stephen Hopp quantifies this more precisely: Each item travels an average of 1 500 miles.
Back to Basics
Fortunately the enterprising balabusta doesn’t have to limit herself to the corner supermarket. When large supermarket chains sprouted across America farmers’ markets fell out of fashion but today you see them reemerging in large numbers. They’re supported by government initiatives aimed at reintroducing our overweight-but-undernourished population to nature’s bounty. Many markets even have authorization to accept food stamps and WIC. The Greenmarket Farmers Markets association in New York currently includes 53 markets and 230 suppliers a far cry from its humble beginnings in 1976 in a parking lot where 12 farmers set up shop.
Farmers’ markets may be making a comeback but they’ve existed about as long as there’s been profit farming. Middle Eastern countries had their souks and European villages had their market days; in cities likeParisandLondon large markets like Les Halles or Covent Garden operated daily (and still do although the originalCovent Gardenmarket has moved several miles away). The kaleidoscope ofJerusalem’s Machaneh Yehudah marketplace is a must-see for any tourist.
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