Mmmmmm Farmer's Markets

I’m a lucky guy. Every Sunday, for the last 19 years of my life, local vendors have gathered just past the end of my street for the Takoma Park Farmer’s Market. Although the Takoma Park parking scene becomes supersaturated, often blocking our driveway, the ability to walk 45 seconds and be surrounded by fresh, local, organic produce more than makes up for it. I thought that I appreciated farmer’s markets when I left Takoma Park in September, but after working on the other side of the counter with Rainshadow Organics and falling in love with the farmer’s market in Bend, Oregon I have a much greater appreciation of the organic produce that I have been able to enjoy.

Setting out all of the goodies at the Bend Market

Maybe it was the buzzing sound of hundreds trapped flies, or maybe it was the smell of moldy, decaying melon plants, but upon cleaning out the greenhouses one day I asked Sarah a simple question: why should I buy from organic farmers, like her, at markets? My parents have always prioritized and provided organic produce and here I am, thousands of miles away from home, dedicating two months of my life to organic farming, and the best answer I could come up with was that organic produce just tastes better. And that is not good enough.
She started off listing some of the arguments that I had heard before, ranging from the additional nutrients and health benefits to knowing that your food is not going to be treated with nasty pesticides and herbicides. But then she began to make the really convincing arguments. Buying from markets supports not only the farmers themselves, but also the ability for our society to grow sustainably. To keep up with the population demands, giant food corporations, such as Monsanto, have resorted some dangerous practices. Here is a short list:
1. They grow genetically modified crops, such as corn with the pesticide Round Up ingrained in its DNA.
2. They dedicate their fields to a single crop (known as a monoculture), which has created a crisis with the bees that pollinate our plants. Also, the lack of biodiversity creates a farm that is overly dependent on a single crop and could really struggle with unforeseen circumstances, such as a pest or fungus that targets their crop, drought (ex. corn farmers in the Midwest this summer), etc.
3. They use fertilizers that kill microorganisms in the soil that apparently convert as much CO2 to Oxygen as a rainforest. I was unaware of how our agricultural practices significantly affect global warming.
4. I am not sure about other big food corporations, but Monsanto acquires legal patents on many species of plans. Then, they dedicate 50 million dollars a year to suing small farmers who had previously been growing said crop.*
So buying from farmer’s markets is not only supporting sustainable practices, but it is also just not

Action shot!

supporting these jerks. So that is the real reason that I will continue to make such a big effort to buy from farmer’s markets, but it is not the reason that I fell in love with the farmer’s market in Bend, Oregon.
I fell in love with the black market of the Bend farmer’s market. In addition to selling the vegetables, flour and meat at the stand, I took on the super serious and completely important duty of “trader,” responsible for transforming vegetables into other goods. After about 4 p.m., once the market had been busy for an hour, I would spring into action, traveling to other stands and offering to trade vegetables for their goods. Most venders were used to this dollar free form of trade and ready to trade for our fresh veggies**. In a rather beautiful transaction of goods, we ultimately left with gelato, ground beef, cookies, cinnamon buns***, bread, pastries, brownies and sliced bread (and an understanding the phrase “the greatest thing since sliced bread”). I’m a lucky guy.

We were at the last market of the
year. So these were the last
precious scraps of the 2012
Rainshadow Oraganics season.

*Due to my limited internet access, I have been unable to double check these stats. Everything I have learned as been via word of mouth. But even if the specific details are not accurate, I feel that the ideas are important enough to be shared.

**One family was known for sending their kid around to do their weekly grocery shopping via trading. He was famous throughout the market as “Ground Beef Kid.”




***CINNAMON BUNS!!!!!!!!!!