They do! I am a big fan of Farmer’s Markets, I have been for a few years now. Lately I have become very interested in learning where my food comes from and how it is produced. That has led me to look into what the CUESA is doing, and to volunteering for them, I am learning a lot! I am learning about the Farmer Market at the Ferry Building; about food production; about the differences between “high production farming” and “Sustainable farming”; about what organic foods really means (or doesn’t mean) and about how there is so much more to fixing the food system than getting everybody to shop at Whole Food!
Yesterday (Friday June 15th), I went on my very first “Farm Tour” organized by the CUESA. We visited 2 farms in the San Joaquin Valley: Bella Viva Orchard, and Candycot. It was so interesting to visit and talk directly to the farmers (and pick fruits right off the trees!). We learned basic things like how the plants are bought, planted, taken care of. How the fruits are harvested. How diseases are prevented. I was very surprised to learn that the farmers get the water in turn. It makes sense when you think about it, but the whole concept of getting a call like “It’s your turn to get the water, get out in the fields and turn it on” just really weirded me out!
The other thing that really caught my attention was the thinking that goes into producing the best fruits possible. The mass producers breed the fruits to answer to economical concerns: How the fruit keep their looks, how even shaped they all are (easier to ship) and how they can be produced as cheaply as possible. Taste doesn’t even enter the picture really. Both producers we met talked about how they strive to produce the sweetest, tastiest fruit they can. Candycot owner, John Driver, pushes the whole thing even further. He has been working for over 15 years to create the tastiest variety of apricot possible. Two of his creations are hitting the market next week, and more are coming. At Bella Viva Orchard, who produces wonderful dried fruits as well as fresh, we learned about how the difference between drying fruits with or without sulfur made a difference in the speed at which the fruit dries, which makes a difference on taste and nutrient content.
I was thinking about all this on the way back to San Francisco, and about how the taste of food seems to be a lost value. We easily ask how much food cost, how many calories are in that food, but rarely do we enquire about the taste. How many times do you find yourself asking “How much are these?” Now think back to the last time you asked a vendor “Are those tomatoes tasty?” I know, I know times are hard, and people are low on money. Funny thing is, Iphones are selling like crazy, pricey data plan included! How many people have a flat screen TV? Netflix? High speed internet at home? Smoke? Will not take MUNI because it’s “dirty” but will pay 15$/hr to park downtown? I could go on and on. Yet, we balk at paying a few more dollars for food that actually tastes like something.
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Most people who swear to hate vegetables have never really tasted vegetables. They have tasted the tasteless produce from the big surface grocery stores. Turned off by those non-foods, they simply have written off the whole idea that vegetables, and fruits, can be delicious. Or they had a meal at a good restaurant and loved the salad and then tried to replicate it at home with mass production vegetables. Not finding the taste they were looking for, they quit: “I’m a lousy cook, so why bother”. You’re not a lousy cook, you used the wrong ingredients! Tonight I made a salad for my husband and I: 1 small head of Galisse romaine lettuce, 1 lemon cucumber, 1 ½ nectarine, 1 thinly sliced tomato, and 2 spicy sausages (Trader Joes). Everything but the sausages was fresh from the Farmer’s Market today. No dressing was even needed! Just a little freshly ground pepper. It was absolutely delicious! You don’t have to be a great cook to tear apart lettuces leaves and slice vegetables now are you? That’s all there was to it! It was delicious because the vegetables I had to work with were delicious themselves.
What is it really worth to you to be healthy, to lose weight and feel better in your skin? What would you be willing to pay to not have to struggle and force yourself to pretend to like vegetables because “it’s good for you”? I challenge you to come to a Farmer’s Market and taste real fresh vegetables that were harvested a day or two before and tell me that you still hate vegetables. Find one you really don’t like? That’s ok, try another one. This is California, the choices are pretty much endless. Stop by one of the stand and grab a fresh pluot and tell me that fruits are not your thing. Not working? How about fresh rainier cherries? Strawberries? Blueberries? Candycots? Come and see me, I’ll help you find “your thing”.
Taste is where it all is. The only way to learn and maintain a healthy lifestyle is to make it satisfying. If you like what you do you will keep doing it. I have never met anymore who enjoys a salad made of cheap iceberg lettuce, tasteless tomatoes, and dried out carrots. I wouldn’t want to live on that. Ever bit into a piece of vegetable and been unable to tell what kind of vegetable it was? Yeah, me too! THAT what the problem is with most people who cannot get used to a healthy lifestyle. Money is short? Prioritize. How much are you spending of designer coffee every week? Drink bottled water much? At + or – 8$/gallon?
Americans are the nation that spends the smallest percentage of their revenue on food than any other nation in the world. We spend fortunes on the stupidest thing, but paying for food that actually taste like something? Oh no, that’s wasting money! Really? How much is your health worth? Your kid’s? C’mon really? I’m not saying that you have to pay high price for every piece of food you buy, but if you put the money where it matters the most, you can add tons of flavor to your meals just by adding the right produce and other farmed products. Think about it, isn’t it worth it?
