5 Reasons Why You Should Be Shopping At Your Local Farmer's Market Lifesum

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You could actually save money.

Imagine if you could walk into Walmart, pick up a tub of salsa, and then, if there was anything you didn’t understand, or wanted to know about said salsa, you could just ask the maker about it – how awesome would that be?

This is the beauty of the farmer’s market, or your local grocer. If you want to actually know stuff about a product, know where it comes from, how it’s been grown, what’s in all the ingredients, and how it’s been made, you can ask the person in front of you.

Take a bite

Personally, I love the tasting element of the farmer’s market. You don’t have to buy in order to try, you can actually have a taster before you commit to purchasing a product you might end up hating.

How the, um, what the, um, help!

Ever seen a food, looked at it and thought, ‘hmm that looks interesting, but I have no idea how to eat/cook that’? This is another thing that’s great with farmer’s markets and grocers. The makers (surprise, surprise) actually know how to use the foods they’re selling. They’ll tell you how to cut it, and which foods it works well with. They’ll just demystify the whole experience.

Meet the source

Where does the turkey you buy come from? Are the turkey raised fairly, or are they caged? Are they fed anything weird? These are environmental questions, but some will argue, also taste questions. When you buy from a grocer, you can ask upfront about the quality of the meat you’re buying. If you’re buying vegetables, you can ask immediately how they’re grown, GMO or non-GMO.

Fresh, seasonal, and eco-friendly

Consumer demand and the of supermarket chains to make as much as possible, has somewhat messed up the state of things. When farming was king, you ate what was a) available, and b) in season, and ate it, usually within days of it being harvested. Nowadays, because everything is available to us, we sit around on Pinterest (or maybe that’s just me), look up a recipe that sounds simple and fast (because who has time for a recipe that takes 40 minutes?), then head over to our nearest grocery store chain and buy the ingredients needed, regardless of whether they’re in season or not.

Now that wouldn’t be a problem, except that most foods we want aren’t in season when we want them, meaning they often travel a couple hundred miles before they arrive ‘fresh’ (read: frozen, vacuum packed or GMO’d) at your grocery store. By the time they arrive at your grocery store they’re literally not even the same food!

When you buy from a farmer’s market or local greengrocer, you’re buying locally, which means the foods have travelled a lot less, and you’re buying in season, because you can only get a hold of what they can grow at that time of year. This is good for you, yes, but it also means you minimise your carbon footprint, go you!

Use these websites (UK), (US), or use Google Search to find your closest farmer’s market.

More about farmer’s markets:
13 Secrets Farmers’ Markets Won’t Tell You
First Time Shopping at a Farmers’ Market? 5 Things You Need to Know
Farmers Market Pro Tips: Shopping Dos and Don’ts

/Femi, The Girl Who Hates Working Out

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