Farmers Market Questions You Should Ask

May 15, 2011 by Tatianna

 

Today I went to my local Farmers Market, and I got a delicious things. Farmers Markets have been around for hundreds of years, this is how people originally shopped for food. But ever since the big corporations turned food into a system people started to forget about Farmers Markets, because they are not as convenient.
The questions that many ask ” Is food at the Farmers Markets Organic? “ Yes and No. Organic simply means that animals such as chickens or cows are given grass and are let to roam free ( how they are suppose to ) and food is grown without pesticides or hormones. But it also means in order to place an Organic Stamp on it, they have to get a license, which has to be approved by USDA. That license is very expensive and many local farmers can’t afford it.

So when you go to a Farmers Market, you are still getting good food, and it is raised without pesticides and hormones, and their animals are grass fed and cage free, just not all the farmers have the license to say it is Organic.

But you have to be careful and always watch out for people who might be selling you conventional store food. You have to ask sellers specific questions to find out, and you have to watch what they say and how they answer it.

For example, today I bought some honeycomb honey and some Bee Pollen ( I haven’t seen honeycomb honey since I left Russia, even Whole Foods where I shop doesn’t have it. ). A person who sold it to me was very friendly and explained every product he had in detail. He gave me some samples and was very happy to offer all the information I asked him about, such as how he raises the bees and how they derive the honey.

I also bought home made bread, which was only a dollar a loaf because it was made the day before. All the ingredients were listed on the front,  the guy who I bought it from was happy to tell me how they make the bread.

If you are buying meat or eggs, ask the seller if their cows, chickens are grass fed ( make sure they are not corn fed, be specific when you ask the question ), and ask them about their farm.   You can tell when people are being genuine  because they will always offer the information.

Some sellers do sell conventional food, but you can tell right away if they do. Today I saw a seller who was selling fruit that was packed in packages you see in regular stores, and when I asked her if she grows the fruit, she wouldn’t really give me a straight answer ( I didn’t buy anything from her ).

Another thing to point out, eat in season. If there is no season for a certain fruit or veggie, you’re not suppose to eat it because it was grown artificially.

You can definitely eat really well and it doesn’t have to have an organic stamp on it, or you don’t have to pay insane amount of money for your food. You just have to go out of your way to buy the food, and many don’t want to do that because of the convenience of Supermarkets. I personally love to support local farmers and go out of my way to do that. Here are a couple of  things I bought today :).

 

 

Bee Pollen is amazing Super Food, I wrote a post about it here. The picture at the top is the Honeycomb Honey. Raw Honey is another Super Food, it has so many incredible properties, everyone should buy it in bulk. You can read about Benefits of Raw Honey here.

 

 

I also got this delicious homemade bread, usually I make my own but I couldn’t resist 1 dollar deal.

 

 

Peaches is a great fruit to buy at Farmers Markets, because at Whole Foods Markets they cost an arm and a leg, but at Farmers Market I paid a little under 2 dollars.

 

 

I am very picky when it comes to a sweet potato, because I like them to be a pretty color like in this picture. I also got those baby cucumbers because I’ve never seen them sold anywhere else.

I bought a few other things, but I don’t want to bore you with it. I also bought some hand made soap to try out. I usually order hand made soap from Amazon or Ebay because it’s cheaper. But to support the locals I bought some soap from them :).