My remarks to the Bellingham Herald (interview yesterday)
What are the health and economic advantages of buying local foods? Mostly — it’s fresh...you know where the food is coming from, how it’s grown — there’s a connection with place. Growing the food (for some farms) and buying the food (at the Market) is a social event. It grows community — I run into so may people I know at the Market. People are voting with their pocketbooks and to me, patronizing the vendors almost is an act of civil disobedience — saying no to the homogenization of food and taste, saying no to sacrificing good, clean, fair on the alter of Cheap. The Farmer’s Market, helps to grow Value and values, too — unlike elsewhere in the U.S., where everything has a price and nothing has value. Such thinking leads to the hegemony of something like Trader Joe’s Nation — the Market is an antidote to that.
How often do you go to the Farmer's Market? I was there today, and mostly because I grow a lot of my own vegetables I don’t buy too much — but I do like to support all our local farmers. I supplement what I don’t grow with purchases — I don’t grow enough spinach, because I eat it Italian-style and love it so. So I buy spinach!
What are your favorite aspects about it? My favorite favorite is the fresh produce, and also the fresh-cooked foods there. I’m not as enthusiastic about the still-arts and crafts, but I do appreciate those that are harder to find or I can’t make myself — the spun fibers.
Do you have favorite vendor/product or perhaps any interesting stories about the Farmer's market? They are all my favorite vendors (sorry)! But I so, so appreciate the farms with long-standing — Cedarville, Alm Hills, just to name a few. Tom Thornton (Cloud Mountain) was there today — wonderful to see him. I buy goat cheese and hazelnut oil and some fruit. My son has been busking there for four years (fiddle/violin), so I feel we’ve all grown up together with the farmer’s market. It’s a thrill when I see people who shared with me farm plans and ideas and ideals (students, friends), and then I see them selling their produce and wares at the Market. That’s a true ecogastronomy.
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| Alm Hill |
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| Broadleaf |
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| Cloud Mountain |
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| Hmmm....what's this? real cupcakes? |
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| REAL food! |
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