National Farmers Market week, August 2nd - August 9th

Promotional postcards from the Farmers Market Coalition.

Started Sunday, ends Saturday.

Take this opportunity to visit and buy food at a local farmers market.

-- National listing of farmers markets (Local Harvest)
-- Washington DC listing of farmers markets (Washington Post)

This past Sunday's New York Times Magazine has a long story, "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch," by Michael Pollan about how food preparation has changed, that people don't cook, they buy processed and prepared foods. A big part of the article is about how people watch shows on the Food Network, but they don't actually cook meals themselves. (The article doesn't discuss how people over the past 15 years would build elaborate kitchens which they didn't use.)

This certainly is true. At the same time, the current recession may be changing people's behaviors, and this leads to a rise in cooking as opposed to purchasing prepared foods and restaurant meals. While restaurant sales are down ("Restaurant Sales Nationwide Expected to Decline in 2009" from New Orleans City Business), generally supermarket sales are up (although particular chains may be in distress) although not at Whole Foods Supermarket ("With Shoppers Pinching Pennies, Some Big Retailers Get the Message" from the New York Times) which has relatively expensive pricing.

We see this in the related trend of the locavore movement and gardening.

But in order for people to cook foods, they need to know how to cook, and the widespread knowledge of how to cook has been declining over the past few decades. Some supermarket chains like Florida-based Publix are adding teaching operations to their stores. Kitchenware retailers like the national chain Sur La Table and the Georgia-based Cook's Warehouse include demonstration kitchens and teaching facilities.

Some public markets, such as River Market in Little Rock, have extensive demonstration kitchens and teaching programs. Some places have programs specifically for children.

Teaching Kitchen, River Market, Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo from the Market.

A great source of information on local food scenes around the country are the various "Edible" magazines. It's a network of magazines across the country franchised through a company called Edible Communities. Some of the magazines are free and distributed through their advertisers, such as the Edible Chesapeake publication in the DC-MD-VA region. Others are sold by subscription and on the newstand. When you travel, you should look for this publication as it will give you ideas on places to eat at or visit.

And listening to NPR recently, there is a weekly radio show distributed by American Public Media on food and gardening issues called The Splendid Table.

This week, make it a point to visit (and buy food at) a farmers market and/or a public market (generally, farmers markets are outdoors and public markets are indoors), and cook something at home.

Think about visiting a market you haven't been to (which is why I am thinking of going to the Alexandria and Courthouse Markets next Saturday).

Tonight is a farmers market in Brookland, by the Michigan Avenue overpass. One advantage of it is that the Licking Creek Bend Farm owner, Mike Tabor, is committed to selling food at low cost...

Mike Tabor and Ellen Siegel of Licking Creek Bend Farm in Pennsylvania (and Takoma Park, MD).

These issues of the online magazine Making Places from the Project for Public Spaces are exclusively about public and farmers markets:

- September 2007
- October 2005