Farmer's Market

One thing I did not do too much of during the year of dining with dad was shop locally. I mean, I did shop locally in the sense that I went to the local Stop & Shop (or Shaw's, or Balducci's), but I did not care too much about what I purchased as long as it was what I needed. I had read (and admired) Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I recycle things when I can. I even grow my own food in my very own garden. But if the strawberries looked good I bought them, regardless of their origin.

Of course, as anyone who has eaten locally knows (or anyone who has ever eaten an apple picked straight from a tree), food that has just recently come from the soil, during the time of year that food ought to come from the soil, tastes better than food that has been grown 3000 miles away and shipped via planes, trains, and automobiles to the local supermarket. Forget the environmental consequences of this kind of food consumption (although don't forget it too long), we have grown so used to tasteless strawberries, apples, peaches, plums, etc., that we forget locally grown food is better because it's simply better.

This morning, visiting the amazing farmer's market at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, the tastes of local (organic) food reminded me that food is not just nourishment, it is pleasure. As I took a bite of the sweetest peach I think I have ever eaten, I wondered why I hadn't paid more attention to the taste of the food I was purchasing, why I had settled on convenience more often than quality.

And another thing: I thought I was allergic to peaches. But I ate this entire peach without the tingly mouth feeling I get when I eat supermarket peaches and I realized (as I suspected) that it is not the peach I am allergic to. It is the chemical residue used to grow and ship supermarket peaches. And if supermarket peaches can make my mouth itchy and tingly, what are they doing to my insides? To my kids' insides?

Thus, another resolution is born: Eat locally. Enjoy!