thrice all american: Time For Some Fresh Local Produce

Time For Some Fresh Local Produce

· Posted Tuesday May 16, 2006 by jamie

The Downtown Tacoma Farmers Market starts this Thursday, the 18th, and continues every Thursday until October 19th. (The Dome District Market is every Tuesday starting June 6th.) This is always exciting for me because I love to head up to the market at lunchtime, maybe grab something to eat if I didn’t bring lunch from home, do some people watching, listen to some music, and just generally enjoy the festivities.

In my email today, someone sent me a posting from Michael Pollan’s blog at the New York Times (subscription required, but if you shoot me an email, I’d be glad to forward the full text). Pollan’s A Place of My Own is one of the more enjoyable books that I’ve read in the last few years. His newest book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which I have yet to read but look forward to, focuses on the politics of food.

Pollan states:

A couple of weeks ago we all paid our taxes. Whenever I write that check, I can’t help but think of the various uses to which that money is put. Whatever your politics, there are activities your tax money supports that I’m sure you find troublesome, if not deplorable. But you can’t do anything about those activities — you can’t withdraw your support — unless you’re prepared to go the jail. Food is different. You can simply stop participating in a system that abuses animals or poisons the water or squanders jet fuel flying asparagus around the world. You can vote with your fork, in other words, and you can do it three times a day.

So here’s your chance, readers! Let’s get out and vote with our forks. Head to either of the mid-week markets, or hit the Saturday Proctor Farmer’s Market. Buy fresh produce from local producers. Organic or not, you will be encouraging the local economy, keeping local farming sustainable, and reducing the transportation costs for your food.

Let’s stop waiting for a Whole Foods or Central Market to open and sieze upon the opportunities we have now! Head to the Golden Pear at Freighthouse, maybe even encourage them to open another store in your neighborhood. Buy into a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share, such as Terry’s Berries, where you can get a weekly load of fresh produce.

I can say firsthand that choosing to try to eat more of what is in season is great. It requires a bit of creativity at times, but it provides extra mileposts for the changing seasons and allows you to look forward to the foods that will be in season in the future. Enjoy your asparagus now, while you can!

We have some of the best farmland in the country right here in the Puyallup Valley. Let’s work towards a sustainable future by taking advantage of what local producers have to offer! Luckily, we have all these resources to help us do so!

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