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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] consumer perceptions, was free range eggs
  • Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 11:05:49 -0400

On Fri, 18 May 2007 07:13:37 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] consumer perceptions, was free range eggs
>From: Home Grown Kansas! <hgkansas AT sbcglobal.net>
>Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 07:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I do not have a lot of time at market to explain why our products are better
>than the grocery store products - although given the time, I will. The
>bottom line is that if my product does not taste better than what you get
>at the grocery store - don't buy it. It is our responsibility to bring the
>best product that we can to the market. Just because it was locally grown,
>does not make it better. It has to be noticeably better - which means it
>must taste better. That is the test. If it does, the customers will come
>back for more.

I know Lynn Wigglesworth has been participating in this conversation. I
live in the same town that Lynn does. Barb Miller is in our general area
too.

Here, it doesn't take much at all to be better than grocery store products,
which are generally in a very sad and often wilted state. The nearest
decent grocery store produce is an 80-mile round trip away.

We grow chard (among many other things) and my husband didn't even
RECOGNIZE the grocery store chard as being chard; it was so sad and wilted
you could barely tell what it was. I mean, I asked him if he knew what it
was, and he studied it carefully and said 'Nope, not a clue.' I told him
it was chard and his reaction was 'No way!'

I think the big problem here is that (a) few people garden and (b) there is
no decent grocery store produce so (c) most people have long since given up
the thought of getting and eating good fresh veggies. I don't know what
they do eat, presumably mostly frozen veggies. I think that the younger
people (younger than 60 or so) mostly don't even know what the vegetables
are or how to cook them.

We garden, and I can tell you that by spring, I am just really *CRAVING*
fresh greens, also rhubarb; I don't understand why more people here don't
garden, I really don't. It's May 20, and I've been a lazy gardener this
year - I have barely done any gardening at all yet - and spring is late
here too this year, but already we are harvesting two types of lettuce,
chives, scallions, bok choy, Chinese kale, both types of parsley and
rhubarb. Yum - I can't enough of the fresh green stuff at this time of
year!

There are no restaurants here (that I'm aware of) that serve any fresh
vegetables of any kind. In fact, the restaurants here seem to serve canned
vegetables only.

The old hotel in town does a decent Sunday brunch and they do at least try
to have fresh fruit for it. But that's about it; and fruit isn't
vegetables.

I just don't the answer for areas like ours. Moving to an area that does
grow lots of food would be a valid choice (especially in view of Peak Oil)
for those who can afford it, which almost undoubtedly lets Lynn out. It
certainly lets us out.

A farmer (Lynn, for example) can't spend full-time educating people and
full-time producing the food too. There's only one of her. So it's a
puzzlement. Change will come to this area, I'm sure of it. But maybe not
for a while.

Pat
-- northern Pennsylvania
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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