Skip to content

Dig In: Shop farmers market for ‘fresh’, ‘natural’

“Fresh” and “natural” appear on virtually every wrapper and package in the grocery store
8075014_web1_170811-CCI-M-orchards
The best fruit and vegetables are at farm markets. (Photo courtesy of similkameenvalley.com)

By Mary and David Lowther

“Fresh” and “natural” appear on virtually every wrapper and package in the grocery store, but if there was real truth in advertising you’d only find these words at a farmers’ market.

Do you want real fresh or “Well, it was fresh when we picked it”? “Fresh” and “natural” have become the new and improved “new and improved”.

Some prefer to buy cheaper produce at the supermarket but this is grown for durability and eye appeal, not flavour, and picked before ripe so it will travel better. When we buy that “fresh” tomato it might already be two weeks old; the tomato we buy at a farmer’s stand woke up yesterday expecting a full-day’s photosynthesis, and may not realize that it’s dead yet.

Farmers selling at community markets usually pick their crops that morning or the day before and you can be sure they’re going to be tasty. Studies based on the Brix Test, which measures the nutrient content of a crop, have shown that the more nutrients a crop contains the tastier it is.

I grow my own produce for this reason and shop at markets for what I haven’t planted. The freshest food tastes the best and feeds the healthiest bodies. I’ve found that the freshly picked produce at farmer’s markets last longer as well, so if I haven’t gotten around to eating that broccoli for a week, it’s still usually just fine, though I admit that just looking at those vegetables in the fridge makes me feel healthier.

Here’s a skill-testing question for you: where in Canada is locally sourced food easiest to find? And where is the best smoked cheese, the freshest fish, the best water for making tea and the fewest mosquitos? I threw that last one in just to make it easy. That’s right — Vancouver Island!

I can hardly wait to get home, and we will be back as soon as David finishes his warbling at the Lytton River Festival. Can you imagine being trapped in a 19-foot motor home with a man bent on practicing his hurdy-gurdy and banjo? He seemed so normal when I met him…

Sure, Moncton has a bigger market and some others offer frozen West Coast fish. We’ve had some mighty fine sausages in Nova Scotia and Alberta that were the equal to any on the Island and organic produce just as fresh, but the markets that carried these goods were fewer and harder to find than right here at home.

Take Calgary for instance. Please. If one wanted produce grown in Alberta, she needed to locate and then travel to a market because the large supermarkets import almost all their produce. The market we found was excellent but it took ages to get there, risking our lives on the white-knuckle free-for-all Calgarians call highways.

Roadside stands east of the Rockies are outnumbered about 10 to one by those in British Columbia, and even then they boast signs saying: “Fresh BC peaches and cherries!” Makes one proud. Where are my ruby slippers?

Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.