Welcome to Autumn in Harrisonburg, Virginia:
Pear from the pear tree mentioned in the earlier post, Local Dinner
This morning I finally made it down to the Saturday Farmer's Market in downtown Harrisonburg! There were roughly 80 vendors present, more than double the amount of vendors at the Tuesday market! Today's market also featured a local musician who serenaded farmer's market patrons as they shopped, it was a nice touch! (Check out the short video of the musician below) I purchased a dozen farm fresh, free-range eggs from the "Egg Lady" (only $2.50), 1 vine ripe tomato ($1.50), a bag of fresh green beans ($3.00), 6 pears (only $1.50!) and a homemade doughnut (1.00). It is so great having access to 3 Farmer's Markets per week: one downtown on Tuesdays, one on campus on Wednesdays and another downtown every Saturday. As soon as I returned home from the market today, my roommate Max's family came to visit from Fredericksburg for parent's weekend. Max's dad is supportive in my mission to eat locally and so he came in with a cooler loaded with fresh vegetables, fruit, cheeses, soup mixes and pickled veggies all within a 100 mile radius of our apartment! He shopped at his local farmer's market and picked some veggies from his garden at home. Thanks for the support!
I encourage everyone to check out their local market and meet the farmers. There is a common misconception that farmer's markets are a very expensive. In some cases farmer's markets are more expensive than the grocery store and to be honest some of the foods look more organic, meaning the potatoes can have roots still on them or the apples may not have that glossy grocery store look. But consider how far the apples at Giant or Walmart traveled to reach the stores, how many chemicals were used as pesticides and insecticides, and why is the fruit so glossy because we all know they don't grow that beautiful. If you are interested in learning how far your food is traveling and what is happening to it, check out my upcoming blog post, due out soon!
Additionally, this week I visited and shopped at a Goodwill for the first time. Not only did it save me money but I also was using one of the purest ways of recycling! I found a few pieces of clothing as well as 2 books, "Meditation for Multi-taskers" and "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook". But the best find of the day had to be the Polaroid camera for only 75 cents! All of this good stuff for only $10.00! Check out your local Goodwill, or even better, your local family-owned thrift store to check out what they have. Not only will you be recycling and supporting your local economy, you will also be saving money and not shopping at a store which sells clothing traveling from all over the world to reach your closet! Living a local life does not simply end at eating local foods but this lifestyle should bleed into other aspects of your life! It is a change in thinking!
Thank you for reading and look out for another post on "traveling food" soon!
~Ryan
"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." - Luciano Pavarotti
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