Jared and I went to the Farmer’s Market yesterday.  The week before, I had happened upon a man that was selling his melons and after tasting them, I decided I needed to get some of my own.  Unfortunately, I was without money, and I implored him to return the following week, which he said he was going to do.

When Jared and I returned, I insisted that we go get melons.  I was intending to only get one, but after trying the different variates he had, we decided to get three of them while we dreamed of what we would do with them (breakfast fruit and maybe a melon sorbet).  One of them is not ripe yet, so I have about a week to figure it out.

I DID crack one open for breakfast this morning, and it was every bit as good as I imagined.

It is hands down the best melon I had ever tasted, and what a treat it was for Jared and I.

Unfortunately, Daphne decided she didn’t like it, but that’s ok.  More for us right?

Go to your market and get good food.  Ours is only around for 3 more weeks.

One thing I’ve noticed recently is that when you do business with local people that you know, the price of things is often negotiable. Take for example when I went shopping the other week at the farmers market I was buying some produce from one of Chris’ friends and the total was something like $12.25. But she saw that I was holding two large bags of veggies plus trying to corral a wild little girl, so rather than make me deal with change, she just called it $12 and we dealt with just bills. I wasn’t trying to cheat her. She was just being nice.

It wasn’t like shopping at some supermarket or national chain where the price is the price and that’s what you get. It was an honest, open exchange of one person to another with understanding of each other’s situation. It was nice. So I guess that’s just one more reason to go support your local farmers, make friends and get good produce.

This may sound like it’s going to be some kind of speech about the necessity of eating local foods and how it’s bad to eat things that aren’t produced locally, but it’s not. I’m more than happy to eat my bananas from who knows where. But Katie wrote an interesting piece on the Oakhill Organics blog about how it is the responsibility of both the producers and the consumers to work together to make the “local thing” work. It was actually a very interesting post for me and made me much more proud of Chris’ little “mini farm” that she has going.

I grew up in northern California (really northern, not SF) right next to Arcata, CA, which is known for it’s radical take on living responsibly (“hippieness” at it’s extreme, though it seems to have calmed down when I last visited). And I’ve been a computer programming bachelor in this modern era of microwavable meals. So while I may not have seen everything, I’ve experienced a lot of the spectrum. And since I’ve pretty much always been in an international scene (I went to and worked at an international boarding school, and the computer work that I do can be done from anywhere in the world), I’ve never really thought much about the local food scene.

But I must admit that over the last few months as Chris has really taken off on her “projects”, as we call them, it’s become a lot more real to me. And I must admit that it’s nice. The food we eat tastes much better. And knowing the people that produced it is actually pretty cool. It adds a bit of camaraderie to the picture. Your not just eating lettuce from the store, but you are eating lettuce from so and so’s farm with some dressing that Chris made out of milk from her goat and some spices.

So I guess to sum up, while I don’t shun all exterior foods and I appreciate the ability to interact with and get products to and from all parts of the world, there’s an added bonus to partaking of your local environment and community.

Chris had something to do today so Daphe and I headed to the market on our own this week. Pretty good for only my second week of “farmer marketing”. I was given some not so clear directions on what to get and a playful “you’re dead if you get it wrong” and off we went.

Carrying a 25 pound baby around the market isn’t necessarily ideal (I’m not sure how Chris has done it all of these weeks), but we had a good time. We stopped in at the Oakhill Organics booth, where I used up way more of our subscription than I was supposed to. But it was fun and they are such nice people. Then Daphe and I got a few other things, including some blueberries and were on our way home.

I’m sort of piggy backing on Chris’ various connections, but I’m really impressed with the various people she has managed to meet over the past year of living around here. They are all very nice and share the purpose of living and eating responsibly. I don’t know–by the time it’s over, I might just end up a “techno-farmer” (seeing as I don’t see myself giving up on computers any time soon).

But in the mean time, I think I will make it a habit to check out the farmer’s market as often as possible. Not only for the food, but just to check in with the various people.