In 2019, you can order all of your groceries online. No need to go to the supermarket, make small talk with the cashier, and wander up and down the aisles. But even if boxed meal kits or grocery delivery drive your culinary life, as spring gives way to summer, there’s something to be said for the inconvenience and inefficiency of ambling down to the farmers market.
With hot days and sunshine, local vendors are ready to reclaim parking lots and sidewalks across the country. Baskets of produce stacked on folding tables and pop-up tents sheltering offerings of locally made jam, crafts, and pies are not only a place to buy super fresh and wax-free products, but they’re also a community event.
Among fresh strawberries, plump eggplants, honey sticks, and bread to rival your grandmother’s, the farmers market is a place to linger and chat: You can get to know your neighbors while perusing the peaches or play cards with the family down the street as a local band performs on a makeshift stage.
Sure, a meandering walk among the vendors or a lazily enjoyed ice cream cone isn’t as efficient as a quick supermarket run and certainly nowhere near as speedy as ordering groceries online. The homemade honey will also be pricier than the stuff at Megamart. But the farmers market was never just about the mere exchange of cash for crops.
And in a world where we spend so much time online and disconnected from the real people around us, the farmers market is a refreshing reminder that real-life community still exists, and showing up is only inconvenient until you get there.
