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Part of my week every week consists of grocery shopping. And I’m sure that’s the case for most people out there. In fact, in some countries, and some households for that matter, people don’t have much refrigerator space so they go to the market every day. And, thus, have the freshest food possible. Not the case here in America though. Here, we’re spoiled by huge refrigerators. Walking through an appliance department in any store and you’re faced with a half dozen different kinds of refrigerators. Ask a salesperson for help and you’ll get the impression that bigger is better. So you go to the grocery store and attempt to fill your refrigerator every week or 2. The grocery store is convenient, yes. But it’s not the most cost effective way to shop.
Think about it. To get an orange, for example, to the grocery store, it has to go through a million different stops along the way. Its not picked by a farmer or farm worker,and brought to the store, fresh and off the tree. Its picked, loaded into trucks, sorted, sometimes bagged, shipped halfway across the country, in some instances, sold to a grocery store, unloaded, and then it makes it onto the shelves. And into your shopping cart it goes. That’s a lot of middle men. Each of those middle men need to be paid too. So the price of your orange goes out. So why not cut out all of that and head to the source; the farmers market. Produce there goes straight from the farm to you, cutting out all the extra steps. Ok, I know that I’m lucky. I live in southern California and farmers markets happen all year round. That’s not the case for those living in cooler climates. Believe me, I know. I was raised in Chicago. But during the spring, summer, and fall, farmers markets pop up all over the country. They’re pretty easy to find in most areas. Especially now that you can find everything on the internet. Try www.farmersmarket.com for one near you.
My favorite market near me is the Santa Monica farmers market on 2nd and Arizona. This particular one happens Wednesday morning, year round. And it’s a great way to find good, cheap, incredibly fresh produce to fill up my big refrigerator. So on Wednesday mornings, I load my laundry into the back seat of my car (its free dryer day at my local Laundromat) and I drive to the farmers market. I try to park nearby so I can run stuff back to my car if my arms get too tired. Its normally crowded and loud, filled with all sorts of people. My strategy is to make one trip around the market and notice where everything is the cheapest, then go back and buy. And so I go back and buy. Always make sure you have cash on you. They don’t accept credit cards or checks.
This past Wednesday I went with 40 dollars in cash. And yes, that may seem like a lot, but I haven’t had to run to the store and buy any extra fruits or vegetables. And for what I got, the money stretched along way. I got 3 pints of strawberries, 2 pounds of tangerines, 1 pint of cherries, 1 pound snap peas, 5 zucchini, a bundle of sweet Maui onions, 6 big bunches of herbs, a loaf of bread, 2 pounds of fingerling potatoes, 2 avocado, ½ a pound of Fava beans, some very fresh goat cheese, 1 lb limes1 pint of blood orange juice, 2 red peppers, and a bouquet of flowers for that 40 dollars. And had enough money leftover to do 4 loads of laundry. I know I couldn’t buy half of that in a grocery store.
Now I’m not saying that grocery stores are all bad, quite the contrary. I get a lot of my food there, including eggs, which they sell at the farmers market, but for more money. But for fresh cheap produce, taking the time and going to your local farmers market, at least while the weather is nice, is the way to go. And I leave you with a recipe, made with ingredients I got last week at the market. And some seasonings from my pantry.
Farmers Market Sandwich
Ingredients:
French bread
Red peppers
Onions
Avocado
Goat chese
Basil
Chives
Olive oil
Salt
pepper
Take your French bread and cut it to the length you want your sandwich to be. Mine is normally 5 inches or so. Slice the peppers and onion into equal sized pieces and sauté them in olive oil until tender and the onions are beginning to brown. Salt and pepper it to taste. Set it aside. Slice the avocado, rub some lime on one half, cover it, and put it back in the refrigerator. Take the other half, cut into thin slices and put on the bottom of the sandwich. Cover with a thin slice of goat chese, some sliced chives and a few basil leaves. Add the pepper and onion mixture, and another few thin slices of goat cheese. You can eat it this way and it will be perfectly delicious. Or, you can grill the sandwich panini style. There are fancy grills made for this but I just do it on a grill pan with a cast iron skillet as a weight. It works beautifully.
Bon appetite!
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