Dale Johnson has been a Farm Management Specialist with the University of Maryland for twenty-six years. He advises small, large, and backyard farms in many agriculture issues. He also writes articles for American Agriculturalist magazine and for the blog, Backyard Farming.
Planning on going to your local farmers market this weekend? Farmers markets are open for business in almost every town and city across the country and farmers are often eager to offer you a good selection of fresh quality produce.
According to Dale, here are ten tips for shopping the farmers markets:
1. View the farmers market as entertainment rather than a chore. It really is fun. Think of how much produce you can buy for the cost of taking your family to a Saturday matinee. Encourage your friends and neighbors to join you on your outing.
2. Take your children and ask them what they would like to buy. Help them learn about the different fruits and vegetables. Splurge and buy them a pint of strawberries they can eat right there.
3. Take a cooler with a couple of milk jugs of ice. Keep that great produce you buy cold until you use it.
4. Don’t go to the farmers market to price shop. Local farmers sometimes charge more than grocery store prices, but you get more for your money. The produce is fresher and tastes better. You’re also helping the local economy and improving the environment.
5. Be flexible and build a menu around what the farmers have. Remember that you want to eat 5 colorful fruits and vegetables every day for good health. Farmers sometimes have recipes for vegetables that you are unfamiliar with. Don’t forget the meat, eggs, and dairy products many local farmers are producing now. If you go just to buy tomatoes or sweet corn, then you are cheating yourself out of all that other great produce.
6. Ask the farmers for “seconds”. Farmers sometimes sell lower quality at a reduced price. Often you can’t tell the difference when using these for cooking.
7. If you can’t find what you are looking for (provided it is not out of season) ask the farmers to grow it for you. They are often looking for new crops to grow.
8. When the farmer is not serving other customers, have them tell you about their farm. Local farmers are very interesting people who contribute greatly to your community.
9. Go to the farmers market on the way to your regular trip to the grocery store. This saves energy and you can buy menu ingredients to supplement what you purchased at the farmers market.
10. USE WHAT YOU BUY! Spoiled vegetables in the refrigerator crisper are a waste of money and discourage you from going back to the farmers market.
Dale has a small farm where he and his wife raised six children. Now their children love to bring their grandchildren home for visits. They have a large garden and horses. They also produce broilers (meat chickens) and keep layers (egg chickens).
You will be seeing more posts from Dale on Simple Living Family in the near future. He has agreed to be our new go to guy for agriculture questions.
If there are any gardening or farming topics you would like to see in one of Dale’s future posts, please leave them in a comment.
