Food For Thought: Lost In The Farmer's Market

Shopping for summer produce without losing your mind

“I wish I were the person I thought I could be when I bought all this produce” goes the meme. 

Foodie culture loves to romanticize the chef and the market. The trope of the chef strolling between rows of stunning produce, sniffing and touching each orb and stalk to find the most perfect, then dashing back to an immaculate kitchen to produce a simple-yet-Michelin-worthy meal is an easy one to conjure in our imagination.

It’s easy to see why. Colourful produce is almost irresistible.  I don’t know how the folks in places like California or the other produce baskets of the world manage to contain their joy, but getting my hands on heaps of beautiful green, yellow, and purple is a rare treat except for a few weeks a year. It’s such a treat that it’s easy to go a bit overboard and end up with flats of berries with no place to store them, a bushel of zucchini that no one wants, and a 25 pound watermelon that won’t fit in the fridge. Call it "Farmer’s Market Regret”.

But produce is one of the largest forms of food waste from home kitchens. The average Canadian household throws out nearly $1300 worth of edible food a year - think wrinkled cucumbers, mouldy berries, squishy apples, and soggy greens. You had the best of intentions and it all looked so good and so HEALTHY!

Grandma was right - our eyes are bigger than our stomach (and fridge)!

But there are some strategies you can use to make the farmer’s market more a feast that a blowout.  It doesn’t involve anything complicated or micro-manage-y like those rigid meal planning schedules the influencers love to go on (and on) about.

Stock Your Pantry.  Like pasta?  Have a few types of pasta on hand.  Love rice? What kinds do you have in the cupboard?  A well-stocked collection of your favourites allows you to improvise. Love Italian food? Keep oregano and olive oil on hand. Crazy about Thai? Pick up fish sauce, soy sauce, fresh limes, ginger and other south east Asian staples for your fridge and freezer.

Have A Plan, Not A List. A list is rigid, but a plan gives you options. Decide which meals you’re planning to make and use those as a guideline. Perhaps you’d like two meal-sized salads this weekend, a vegetable-forward pasta early in the week, and some fruit for a galette. Another time the plan might be to make a soup, some roasted vegetables, and a fruit salad. A plan allows you to be flexible based on what’s in season, what’s in stock, and what turns your head - without getting too far off track. Many greens are interchangeable, stone fruit are easy to substitute, and root vegetables are endlessly versatile, so be creative!

Do Your Homework. Getting to know your local farmers doesn’t have to mean awkward small talk while someone bags up your corn cobs. Many small farms and local food artisans have Instagram, Facebook, and other presence on social media. They often provide a preview of what’s new, what’s ripe, and what will be at the market stall this week. You can use this to plan ahead for making pickles, jam, or even just the week’s meals. Besides, you’re on your phone all the time anyway.

Use the tech. Speaking of your phone, it’s an excellent way to look up new recipes on the fly, or to tap into your collection while on the move. Store your favourite recipes on Pinterest and you can look them up from wherever you are. No kale at the market but lots of swiss chard? No problem - you can find a recipe from right there in the parking lot.

Get prepping. By the time you’re home from the market and have your bounty unpacked you might be beat. It’s probably hot. It might be wine o’clock. But those carrots won’t peel themselves, the berry basket won’t fit in the fridge, and by the time you get around to those radishes next week you’ll be fishing them out from a mound of slimy green tops. Think like a prep cook (or a meal prep influencer) and get your produce into a useable format as soon as you get home. You don’t have to prep entire meals, but a bowl of washed berries or a container of roasted root vegetables is more likely to get used than anything out of an overwhelmingly-stuff vegetable drawer. Give a gift to your future self and get started right away.

Farmers markets can be a great resource for the home cook. They bring us closer to our communities and skip the middlemen along the supply chain. They keep us in touch with the seasons and grounded in the reality that food comes from the earth and not from packages. If we can follow a few simple rules the farmer’s market can be a source of inspiration for some of our best summer meals. Enjoy them while they last!