We have two farmer's markets a week in our town, and several others going on in nearby towns almost every day of the week. Products from local farms and ranches are readily available in season, along with other goodies like fresh baked bread, gourmet pasta, honey, and of course, my favorite, the food booths.
I'd always figured that the fresh food offered at these markets were also lower in price than the nearby grocery store since they essentially have cut out most of the middlemen. Unfortunately, they are more expensive, sometimes costing double or more for the same thing.
Recently I made some price comparisons. It just seemed kind of pricey to get a field ripened tomato at the market for $4 a pound. Heirloms, $5 a pound. Grocery store, $3.99 a pound for hothouse tomatoes. That's not on sale, either. The weekly ad has the hothouse tomatoes grown here in Colorado for $1.99 a pound. I was curious - maybe the taste of an heirloom was worth the money. Out of the two I purchased from the market (spent $10.00), one was just like a grocery tomato - mealy, and bland. Granted, the other one, a purple one, was a little better, but we cut into one of my little guys grown on the vine (from a plant I purchased this spring at the grocery store!), and mine was 100% tastier! Why? Mine are grown fairly organically, not on purpose, but because I don't have too many bugs; my biggest pest is the local chipmunk. A little Miracle Grow once in a while, and I now have an explosion of almost ripe tomatoes coming on! But I digress....
So let's move on to meat and other animal protein. Sirloin steak? $5.99 at the grocery store, on sale, Choice. (not the high end). Grass fed local beef (we find it rather gamey sometimes), $10.99 a lb. Eggs - I spend about $3.50 on 18 eggs. The market in a neighboring town was advertising the local beef grower, with eggs "$5.00 a dozen!" like they were really proud of it. Here's the thing. Free-range eggs in the store? About $3.00 and change. Then another local outfit thought $7.00 a dozen wasn't too much to ask.
How, I ask you, are people able to afford fresh produce and fresh protein, with this kind of attitude? Am I alone in thinking, it's a fad and people are taking advantage of the fad, counting on two things - one, nobody goes to the store a block away and compares prices. Two, they are so excited about the concept that they don't think about what it is costing them.
I've also indulged in other things that look so tasty - gourmet flavored pasta, 1 lb, $9.00 this year. Bread, $7 a loaf. Who are they kidding?! I can bake 15 loaves at home for that price (maybe I'm exagerrating a little bit, but not that much).
What got me started on this today was a headline on Yahoo that caught my eye -"Study: Healthy Eating is privilege of the rich." We hear so much about inner-city "food deserts" and how the lower your income, the more likely you are to be obese. People would make better choices if they could afford it - salmon is pretty expensive. I do think it's possible to eat healthy and get good nutrients but it would mean that you'd have to find ways to stretch the protein, and you wouldn't get fish that often, or even good animal protein if you weren't a vegetarian.
Now, I'm not sure what we can all do about this, except keep hammering away at the myth that a lot of people with weight problems eat junk because they want to. Full disclosure - I'm not a willow thin person, although I do try to eat well. I don't eat fast food, and I do spend quite a bit more than I probably should on groceries. I'm going to have to cut back. I just put my car in the shop and it's going to be expensive, so like all American families with a limited budget, something is going to have to be sacrificed. I'm fortunate that I have my little garden of tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and the like, a Costco nearby for some items, and only two of us to feed. I'm curious if these prices in my area is the norm, or an anomaly at the farmer's market.
What about your home town or urban area? Any food deserts, farmer's markets? What's your experience?