Weekend Review: Farmer's Market

Whenever we are in town and I'm not working, we try to make it down to the Marietta Square for the weekly Farmer's Market.  It is my favorite place to buy produce and if nothing else I enjoy walking through the vendors.  We go down there with Phoebe and Knox so it is good family time.

The morning always begins with coffee from Cool Beans- one of my favorite coffee shops.

Then with coffee in hand, we make our way through the market.

I have mixed feelings about how to choose who to purchase from.  On the one hand I really like supporting the family farms.  I enjoy talking to the actual farmers who pick the produce and hearing how they farm.  When was it picked?  Is it organic?  Do they use environmentally friendly farming practices?  Most of these family farms produce organic produce.  (They might not be USDA organic certified because that is a government agency and therefore a hassle and costs money, but they use natural farming techniques.)  But as we all know, organic and naturally farmed produce is more expensive.  Hence the internal struggle.  I would much prefer to buy your organic kale for $3/bunch (which is #15 on the EWG dirty dozen list) because you can tell me exactly what variety of kale it is, you picked it this morning, and I really like talking to you and want to support what you are doing.  However, this kale across the street is $1/bunch, and we live on a tight budget.  The vendors that sale kale for $1/bunch have a significantly wider variety of produce to choose from as well.  Why?  Because they collect produce to sell from many different farms across the southeast: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina.  Their produce is not organic and is less expensive because they are purchasing from larger farms (but still local, which beats Kroger or Walmart). My philosophy changes weekly; I am not consistent with how I do my shopping.  I am more likely to pay more for the organic produce from the family farm towards the beginning of the month and more likely to shop from the larger third party vendors towards the end of the month. My biggest success this week was getting Chris to try kale chips and then to actually admit that they were good!  Ok, he very carefully chose not to use the word good, but he admitted that they were a lot better than he had expected.  I love the kale chips from Square Peg Living Foods.

   This week there was also an artists market.  I think they called it their Fall Festival down another one of the streets in the square.  We also really enjoy looking through all the artist booths.  I normally don't purchase anything, but this week I couldn't resist an adorable posy pin and hair bow for Phoebe.  I have been looking at pins on etsy and other blogs lately and loving them!  

How cute is that?