5 Reasons to Shop Local Farmers Markets

I recently learned of a story telling how a great uncle hauled cucumbers into a local town about 7 to 10 miles from the homestead.  Here sat large wooden barrels where cucumbers soaked to be hauled off on the train as pickles. 

It must have taken an entire day to drive with horses pulling a wagon loaded with cucumbers almost 10 miles, unload the cucumbers and drive home.  Imagine the time involved in hand picking all those cucumbers before somebody in the family needed to spend an entire day hauling a load to town.  Yet, in those days it was worth it?  Our American society needs were different during that time.

I heard my great uncle had the following to say about hauling pickles:

“He said his Dad was one best pickle sorter and the pickle factory knew it. They always had him unloaded ahead rest of the wagons they knew he always had the best sorted pickle.”

These ‘days gone by’ marked the beginning of the industrialized and global market we know today.  While some changes are good, others sadden me.  Why does a farmer today need money from the government to survive when he or she produces one of the most important commodities for human life: food? 

In our current crisis why does a farmer find themselves reliant on a global economy for income when neighbors need to eat? These same neighbors purchase food that may or may not have even been produced in our own country.

Why Local Farmer’s Markets Today

Here is where I see a huge value in a local farmers market, not only do you support families in the community where you live, you are also able to gain first hand knowledge of practices used to produce the food you eat.

I am not sure how you think about this, but I hate it when I read ingredients on a package to realize there are several that I do not know what they are or why I want to put that inside of myself. 

Does it take longer to cook your own food? Maybe, but not always.  It is rather, a mind set shift.  I would like to use garlic as an example.  Until I began raising my own garlic, I always used the dry stuff that came in a shake out container.

Fresh Garlic vs. Dried Store Garlic Powder

Easy to open the cupboard and dump.  But not much more work to use real garlic once you have a process in place. Mine looks like this:

Granted this does involve a few additional steps. Key in this process is a good garlic press.  I have tried a few different ones.  I highly recommend a quality hand garlic press to help the process go smoothly.  The whole process takes me less than 5 minutes.

We just decided that it takes about 5 minuets or less to use real garlic, so what is the motivation behind adding a few more minuets to cooking a meal? 

Health Benefits and Flavor

Health benefits first prompted me to start growing my own garlic. I found that it grows well here at CG Heartbeats Farm and most varieties grow rather large.

Using fresh food enhances flavor dramatically. This applies anytime a person uses a fresh food, even home processed (frozen, canned, or dried) over some similar product processed in _______ (Who knows? Fill in the blank.)  

These days I find it most unfortunate the difficulty of knowing truly where food came from. A label may only read a location in the United States where a package was distributed from. I feel a disappointed at the lack of disclosure on several different factors of many food options today.

~ M. Graber

5 Reasons for Shopping Local Farmers Market

Here are my top reasons for choosing to shop at local farmers market. We can all utilize our local markets as often as possible.

What reasons would you add to what I listed above? Leave a comment sharing why you find local farmers markets important.

Shop Online at Local Farmers Market

Relevant to our current call to social distance, a new way to shop at local farmers markets has emerged. Online shopping with local pick up. One market in Culver, Indiana uses a web company called Local Line. CG Heartbeats Farm now offers online ordering as a part of Culver Farmers Market. Check it out if you are in or near Marshall County Indiana as this site is for local sales ONLY! https://www.localline.ca/cg-heartbeats-farm