do farmers markets matter that's the question I'm going to try to answer in
today's video
hey guys it's Morgan from Gold Shaw Farm and as you probably can tell I'm
not at the farm today I'm down in DC for work and I figured this would be a good
opportunity to talk to you about something that's very important ever
since we moved to DC a few years back I developed a very specific Sunday ritual
I get up early in the morning go hit the gym -- I fully recognize how ridiculous it
is I have to spend an hour so every day getting exercise in a place like this
and then after the gym I go to the Dupont Circle farmers market here in
Washington DC the Dupont's farmers market is actually my favorite farmers
market in DC it's got some of the biggest selection and some of the best
vendors in the city so I know that the booth right behind me doesn't look all
that attractive but the stuff they have in there is amazing
it's Cibola farms they're a bison farm out in Culpepper Virginia I've been
there before and gotten to tour the place and it's amazing walking around
and seeing and seeing all the bison graze when you walk around here it's
it's nice because you get to know the different vendors you get to make
friends with the farmers you get to learn about their various growing
practices I for one have gotten more into agriculture because of a lot of
people I ended up meeting here at this very farmers market
today I want to share with you guys for very important reasons why shopping at
the farmers market is a good thing number one you get access to incredible
quality food I mean look at the variety and diversity of stuff that they have
here there's so much good food here it's incredible
do the freshest local food these are all
you're not gonna find better quality meats and vegetables in a city like DC
than at the farmers market just no question about it the quality cannot be
beat by going to farmers markets and meeting the people who grow your food
you're able to have a tighter connection with your food that's something that's
very hard to do when you're surrounded by concrete like in a place like this
it's important for people to understand the whole chain of where food starts and
where it ends up and and what that takes when you go to a grocery store you are
seeing things that have been if I toss this off in their package and animals
that completely you know disassemble the
shrink-wrap vegetables that are coming out of season from Peru from Mexico from
Israel all over the world it's kind of important to know at a basic level that
tomatoes are a summer vegetable that are fruit that grow in the heat and you'd be
surprised how many people we encounter that don't know basic things about food
and so the market is important I think for education our perceptions today are
so skewed by what it's like to just walk into a grocery store and have any type
of vegetable or fruit on demand at any given moment a grocery store even raised
or when drew these eggs collected or what exactly goes into this pasta or how
do you make it so it's a farmer's markets become somewhat of a pop-up
community for people and that in and of itself offers value cities can be lonely
places having a community that you can see on a regular weekly basis of people
that you walk in and you say hey how's it going and you chat and you you talk
about the weather and you talk about what's in season and you talk about
what's going on in the city and you talk about how stupid Donald Trump is there's
something nice about that there's something nice about having a community
that that you can connect into well it's a really nice gathering place I find a
lot of people thin it in the grassy area has been talking
about weather in seasons and what kind of things they're buying and you know
which which vendors have the best rhubarb now or who has the most
delicious aggregate right there significant ups and so it's a nice way
to connect with your communities through food well I know why people did
married people me in farmers markets we see proposals and stuff that really
works people okay yeah seriously we have we see proposals at this margaery
supposed to look through all the markets it's a lot tourism I mean it brings
people together it's great see lot friends family hanging out kids
you know get now we just have a stroller convention and it comes with a very small carbon
footprint it is let's see if they got questions, there's the farmer
yeah farmers markets are just such a great gathering place
and center of activity in the energy and enthusiasm that you see and everybody
excited to see all the great food it's a lot of fun another reason why farmers
markets are important is because they're important to the farmer for a farmer to
have the ability to have access to their customers and get a sense of what their
customers are looking for to cut out the middleman and and be able to sell their
products at a retail price for a farmer's business that's very important
it's great because we can connect directly to the consumer we can get a
retail price rather than selling to a distributor we get a lower price and
that way - it's better for the customer because we can guarantee that it's
fresher it doesn't have to get transported somewhere then we lose money
and then the customer doesn't get as fresh
so probably close to
200 pounds of mushrooms ever you get here
by going to farmers markets and buying directly from the farmers you're doing
good for these small farmers you know people today often lament about the lack
of small farms in this world but then there's also the same people who
complain and say that spending money at a farmers market cost too much goddamn
money well you got to recognize those two things are connected the true cost
of food and the true cost of doing sustainable food at a smaller scale is
baked into the price when you're buying it from a farmer directly
I wasn't always gung-ho about farmers markets I used to think that they were a
scam when we first got married Allison was the one who had to convince me to go
shop at farmer's markets and and I was always feeling like oh this is a sham
they're just charging you extra money because they recognize that people are
dumb and will pay for anything artisanal there is a cost to having cheap food
there's a lot of shortcuts that get taken when you're growing pigs or
chickens in a warehouse versus out on pasture by going to the farmers market
and meeting your farmer and knowing your farmer you actually get a better sense
of what the true cost of your food should be
if you want to watch some of our past videos check them out here be sure to
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comments down below I'm happy to interact and and tell you why you're
wrong and I hope you have a great day