A Trip To The Farmers Market
I am so excited for today’s post because it’s all about another important topic to me - eating & supporting local farmers! I think, based on my last two posts, we’ve more than well established my love for animals (and don’t worry, I promise, that will come up again in this post), but I also have a love for supporting local businesses, and if you’re looking for a good place to start, I think the best place is the local farmers market.
Eating Local & Supporting Local Farmers
As we all know, I’m a vegetarian, and I’m sure some people probably wonder why I’m not vegan. Long story short, ya girl’s got a lot of health issues that require me to keep some animal by-products in my diet, as much as I don’t love it. So, to get into why I love supporting local farmers, I have to start by saying, I’m definitely vegetarian for moral reasons, but it’s not so much because I completely believe that people should absolutely not eat meat, but it’s because I am so unbelievably against supporting factory farming. For those who don’t know what factory farms are, they are farms that mass produce animal by-products to market - and they are infamously known for treating their animals terribly. It’s well known that animals face a lot of abuse and mistreatment, as unfortunately, to a lot of these factory farms, they are just a source of making money.
* Disclaimer: I’m very well aware that maybe not every factory farm treats their animals poorly, and I am also very well aware that maybe even some small local farms don’t treat their animals the best either. Information is forever changing, so the best thing you can do, is if you want to support farms who treat their animals well, is to research, and make sure they really are giving them the best life.
Fruit & Vegetables
I don’t know about anyone else here, but I feel like I’ve noticed lately, that a lot of the fruits & veggies I’ve been buying from the grocery store, are almost tasteless. It’s extremely disappointing. This past weekend, when I was at the market, I decided to do my lunch grocery shopping, so I picked up the following:
Jalapeños
Carrots
Blackberries
Raspberries
Green Onion
Garlic
Fresh Savoury (Not a fruit or veggie, but still something I picked up!)
Eggs (Also not a fruit or veggie, clearly, but needed to be added to the list)
I’ve had a chance to try a bit of everything except for the garlic & savoury, and let me tell you, if they taste any bit as good as the rest of those fruits & veggies, they are going to be delicious. I find sometimes, jalapeños don’t always taste the spiciest, but these local ones I purchased, are so hot, I was not expecting it one bit when I took a bite of my lunch today! Another thing I really noticed, was how flavourful the raspberries & blackberries were, which I find most of the time, when I get them from the grocery store, they have absolutely no flavour, and I am constantly finding myself being disappointed everytime I purchase them, so it was a pleasant surprise to take a bite of these berries, especially considering we’re well into September.
Local Eggs
Yep - going back to animal welfare for a second here. Since being kind to animals is extremely important to me, I prefer to purchase local or grocery store eggs. If you aren’t aware, chickens (and other birds - duck, turkey, etc.) in the meat industry are the most abused animals. Why, I’m honestly not sure. But, it’s the sad truth. I remember a few years ago, people suddenly were starting to push a vegan diet. I thought, well… it doesn’t harm the animal itself, so why exactly should we choose to omit all animal by-products? That’s when I discovered there was a dark side to the egg industry. Hens are squished in cages far too small, especially for multiple of them, and there, they are forced to eat, sleep and lay their eggs. This isn’t even the only sad part - male chicks are considered useless to the egg industry, so, to save you some upsetting details, I’ll just say that they dispose of them.
Like I mentioned before, I have a plethora of health issues that makes a vegan diet unobtainable to me, and that’s why I choose to support and buy from local egg farmers when I can. They are definitely more pricey than just popping by the grocery store, but it is absolutely worth every penny knowing that the chickens that laid those eggs aren’t living a harsh life the way that many in factory farms are.
Buying Local Meats
You’re probably wondering why I have this section in here considering I don’t eat meat. Funny enough, I actually know someone who grew up on a farm, raising pigs for meat, and I know her family truly loved those animals & treated them well while raising them. I’m also never going to say never. Being that I have a lot of health issues, I’m never going to completely rule out going back to eating meat, but that would only be if my doctor was to advise me that I needed to, or else my health would suffer, or if I ever decided to have children. Though I have little-to-no experience of my own with dealing with meat famers, I know there’s almost always someone at the market selling meat, and once again, I’d feel so much better supporting a family in my community, who I would be willing to bet, treats their animals so much better than a factory farm does.
Seasonal Offerings
I feel like a lot of people forget that farmers markets also have locally grown flowers for sale. It’s something I even have to remind myself of, and I am personally trying to make an effort to keep my local markets in mind when I want to get some fresh flowers to spruce up my room. In addition to flowers, something I often forget about is the local farmers who bring pumpkins to the market in the fall. I am absolutely obsessed with pumpkins, so much so, that I see them at the store, and I often just throw one into the cart (not a word of a lie, I had 10 pumpkins last year). However, looking forward, I’d like to support my local growers more, and go to either the farmers market or a pumpkin patch in the fall, instead of buying every pumpkin from the grocery store.
* Fun fact: At the end of the season, you can always take your pumpkins to some local farms. A lot of them will accept them & feed the pumpkins to the animals!
Well, I think that just about sums it all up! I hope this post has inspired you to get out to your local market soon & support the families in your area.
