introduction

Most shoppers are growing tired of overpriced and flavourless supermarket produce and turning to more traditional food retail outlets — their local farmer’s and grower’s markets.

In developed countries, the weekly expedition to the supermarket to stock up on necessary supplies has become routine. Everything you need to run a household can be procured there; from detergents to deli items, greeting cards to green vegetables and frozen sweet treats to fresh fruits, meats and fish. Convenient and one-stop, those wide aisles, piercing fluoroscent lights and commodious trolleys make food shopping a no-brainer—in fact, we’ve almost forgotten that there was once an entirely different way to hunt and gather.

Over the past decade, there has been a quiet but significant shift in food shopping options with the rise of grower’s and farmer’s markets. Ironically, this represents a return to more traditional food retail and a time when every town had its own market. Farmers would typically bring their produce—freshly dug, picked or gathered—and sell direct to buyers. There were no middle-men, no transportation issues, no drawn-out storage, no gas-induced ripening, no specially-developed varieties bred to withstand the rigours of long-distance distribution and supply. In fact, nothing fancy at all—just good, simple, honest food, delivered at its seasonal peak.

While it is a sad fact that many of our seasonal foods have been reduced to mere commodity items (think of tomatoes, apples or strawberries, for example), thankfully not everyone is prepared to settle for the attendant loss of both flavour and varietal quirks that go with it. While it is handy to have salad vegetables in the dead of winter, or out-of-season produce shipped in from far-flung hemispheres, there is no doubt that a rising number of cooks are instead returning to such under-threat values as ‘flavour’, ‘seasonal usage’, ‘heirloom varieties’ and ‘boutique-scale production’.

To an extent, this interest is driven by a modern breed of restaurant chef, who increasingly favours ‘top quality seasonal produce cooked simply’. Another contributing factor is fatigue with our complex, rat-race lifestyle and a nostalgic yearning for the values of a slower time when one ate what the earth offered up when it saw fit, and each season’s bounty was a refreshing change from the previous one. International travel and exposure to true food cultures has done much to alert us to the emptiness of a wholly supermarket-dependent existence.

The fact is, we’ve become increasingly separated from the source of our food. But grower’s markets, and the spirit that motivates them, are bridging this gap. Urbanites can’t hope to turn back clocks and exist in rural idylls, but they can, through patronage of a local market, move closer to that place and the person that is the source of their food—and be enriched in the process.

Shopping at grower’s markets requires thought, planning and effort but the results are not just superior-flavoured food. Ambling, basket-in-arm, through stalls bursting with fragrantly ripe fruits and just-dug potatoes splotched with rich, damp earth is as much nourishment for the soul as it is for the body. Stall-holders offer tastings, insights, advice and information that often can’t be found elsewhere. Buying in-season represents better monetary value, too. Gluts provide the opportunitiy to make jams and preserves, and to freeze such fleeting delights as cherries, apricots and figs for out-of-season use. There’s no wasteful packaging or exposure to blinding display lights (which can diminish nutrient content and shorten produce life) at the market, not to mention the refreshing absence of congested check-outs and harried shoppers.

Not everyone, though, has access to a grower’s market, and in such instances, sleuthing to find a reputable greengrocer becomes necessary. Find a purveyor who is passionate about their suppliers and produce, who can give you information about fruit and vegetable varieties and details about how, when and where they were grown. Settle for nothing less than perfectly in-season, full-flavoured produce, cook them beautifully and reconnect with the seasonal rhythms that give such a meaningful pace to each and every year.