We went to the Farmers Market on Saturday. I noticed that there was a lot more produce being sold that was not local. As in not even from Ontario. But I also overheard a lot of people saying "those can't be local" so at least people are aware! I mostly heard them saying this when looking at strawberries. The local strawberries are small whereas those grown in the US or Central/South America are huge. But size isn't the biggest difference that I notice. It is the taste. I am not knocking produce from the US, just that by the time it gets here it is not all that great. The strawberries are not sweet, usually have a green tip and lots of seeds showing. They don't have much of a taste to them either.
We bought the smaller local berries and they are simply delicious!
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The conventional produce grown in the US doesn't taste much better here in the lower 48! It's food bred for to look good and transport easily, I fear nutrition and flavor don't rank very highly in their list of priorities!
ReplyDeleteI'm so heartened to hear that people at your farmer's market could recognize the difference!
I was actually kind of surprised to hear people saying things like "that must not be local. Look at the size!". It is great to hear that people are becoming more aware.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the stalls have to say in KW area, but I know that at the Ottawa Byward Market the city passed a by-law where I believe you must state whether you are local and certain street stalls in the "main core" are only allowed to be local. It caused some vendors that sell items like Peruvian sweatehr etc. to move to different stalls.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that local in-season produce tastes the best!
Steph