In the Hudson Valley, you can’t get fresher food than at your local farmers’ market. If your child turns up her nose at store-bought veggies, she may dive in to those that are straight from the farm because they’re loaded with taste.
“We always wonder why children don’t want to eat vegetables. Often, supermarket vegetables have no flavor or aroma – and kids know that,” says Nadia Maczaj, the market director of Suffern’s farmers’ market and a farmer herself, at Ellenville’s Rusty Plough Farm. “When I pick a carrot and eat it, I can taste the sweetness and the flavor that’s missing from a supermarket carrot.”
“The nutritional value of market food is higher. It’s super fresh – produce is picked right before the market, and isn’t just sitting in boxes like at the supermarket,” agrees Cheryl Paff, the business manager of the farmers’ markets in Rhinebeck and Woodstock.
She adds that farmers’ markets are also great places to find more unusual produce that you can’t find in your supermarket, where a product’s shelf life is valued more than its uniqueness. And don’t worry about puzzling over how exactly to prepare those mysterious looking garlic scapes or tatsoi – many farmers’ markets offer recipe suggestions as well as fresh food.
Sue Sanders is a freelance writer living in Ulster County.