The market, a murmuring of vendors and customers conversing in joy with the extra vitamin D flowing through their veins due to the lengthening daily appearance of that beautiful bright orb in the sky we call the sun. A scene that has no doubt been in existence since the agricultural explosion nearly 10,000 years ago.
People, coming together over food.
With the lengthening days, many are starting to feel re-energized and are coming out of our igloos to venture into the Orwellian, brave new world. Like the bear, many are craving fresh greens after waking from our winter slumber. Fortunately, unlike the bear, we don't have to munch the dandelion and cotton wood buds for our first craving of chlorophyll.
Options for attaining your greens this time of the year for the locavore seem to be as absent as the yearning for more winter. But wait, there is hope (Hope farm pun). This time of the year our grow-op, to which I dub the name "the only legal grow-op of the east line" is brimming with peashoots, spicy radish microgreens, clover sprouts and wheat grass (for the avid juicer). As more and more people are gobbling them up at the market, it is becoming harder and harder to keep up (there could be worse issues to have this time of year).
We know prices for iceberg lettuce (aka California drought water) at the local grocery store chains are fairly cheap and the reality when it comes to making purchase decisions is largely based on the price sticker. Because of this, we maintain our pricing at wholesale distributor pricing even at the farmer's market (I told you local organic food isn't that pricey).
This is our first year of doing our year-round vegetable box service. It has been an education for us as well as our customers new and old.
While Janie and I on the farm maintain a large larder of all the goods we produce throughout the year and process into jars and freeze, we know this is not the case for everyone, nor do they have the time or want.
What we have learned this year is availability of products as our customer products in our root cellar begin to dwindle and leave us to greens and spuds, we bring in products from southern B.C. farms to add to the diversity of our food boxes while maintaining a price point that is worth biting onto for our customers.
One of the interesting things we have observed, like in our own household each year, is the yearning for more produce and fresh greens this time of year by the public.
The human body craves what the human body needs and this time of year it is craving sunlight (vitamin D) and chlorophyll from greens to renew and refresh the body for the upcoming season of activity that us as British Columbians anticipate as soon as the snow reveals that we do actually walk upon soil.
Hold tight, Prince George. The best reason is our summer season to live in the North and it is on its way. The winds of change have definitely begun to blow.
