Opinion: I'll buy your asparagus
I grew up next to an apple orchard. I didn’t particular like apples. Through my early life we had chickens, sheep and a goat. I don’t know if my parents were consciously trying to teach me anything, but I did learn where food comes from and it wasn’t always from the supermarket. I don’t particularly like supermarkets anymore either.
Now, I’m not here to judge anyone – I completely understand the that convenience of a supermarket to a busy parent is a valuable quality. Despite trying to avoid it, sometimes a trip to Woollies is just too easy to replace with shopping in four different places to get what you need when you need it. I get it, I use them. But, I don’t like it.
We’ve done a lot of our fruit and vege shopping at the locals Farmers’ Market (mainly Noosa and Eumundi, but we’ve just rediscovered Yandina). While we’re not growing our own food (yet), I’ve enjoyed showing The President (4 y.o.) that different people sell different things because different farmers grown different things. I don’t know that anything has sunk in, but he can tell you that milk comes from cows, so that’s something.
More important for my personal market experience is that I feel like my money is going to people in the community who really want my business. I know Coles wants my business, but they want ALL my business including my food, petrol and insurance. The guy who grows asparagus? He just wants me to buy some asparagus, and I’m glad he grows it, and I want him to keep growing it.
I could talk about organic produce and that the food tastes better, but I don’t know if any of that matters or if I just convince myself that it tastes better because I want it to. I could also talk about the control of massive corporations over of our national growing industries, but I don’t really know anything about it. I like shopping at the market because it makes me feel like I’m contributing to the community, and I like how that makes me feel.
And I like doughnuts. Man, they make good doughnuts.
