Mrs. SPF and I really enjoy our Saturday morning trip to our local Farmer’s Market. For a city our size we have a substantial market that runs every Saturday morning at the local arena. During the winter months there are about 40-50 vendors and when spring and summer arrive this number balloons to well over 100 vendors. Farmers from the region rise well before dawn to set up their booths which display locally produced fruits, vegetables and other delicacies like maple syrup, cheese, herbs and plants.
Shopping at our farmers market does not always save us money. Honestly, the items for sale at the market are sometimes
more expensive than we can find at our grocery store and definitely more expensive than Walmart (which we boycott). We do get many items like bacon and mushrooms amongst other things which are very comparable in cost to grocery store. However, the primary value we derive from shopping at the farmers market comes from engaging our community and financially supporting local business people who spend their earnings in our community. Most importantly our food is produced and delivered locally which greatly reduces the carbon “miles” our food travels from farm to table.
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photo credit: Bjørn Giesenbauer photo credit: JohnnyRokkit
I agree. I think supporting your local community is really important and limiting your carbon footprint is too. Good for you guys, trying to make a difference.
It all has to add up eventually, right? :)
We shop regularly at our local farmer’s market as well. Prices can be more, but it feels good to know where the produce and meat comes from. We look at it as an investment in our health.
Yep, health and the environment (which then leads to health …). Quite cyclical.
If you’re buying organic, sometimes the higher “cost” is justified by the higher nutritional content, and therefore, higher food value.
Absolutely right 101 Centavos.
I wish there was a way to accurately measure what we’re trying to do w/ our lifestyle and personal finance decisions, but as far as I know there are no reliable tools to measure the variables we use with any accuracy. We do try when we can to show the financial side of things, but health is a long term “expense” that we simply don’t have the capacity to track (i’d be surprised if our government has the capacity, and if they do they spend MILLIONS to do so!)
[...] PF at Sustainable Personal Finance presents Sustainability Tip #30: Shop at you Local Farmers Market, saying “The primary value we derive from shopping at the farmers market comes from engaging [...]
[...] (mine is on saturday morning). Even fellow yakezie member (and good friends) Mr & Mrs SPF shop at the farmers market – though we dont shop at the same [...]