Phoenix Farmers Market
He Says: The first time I went to a farmers market was in Los Angeles in the late seventies. The maze of booths, tables and stands seemed to go on forever. It was great fun running around checking out what everyone had for sale. Exotic fruits, touristy trinkets, and a great mix of people made it a great experience that made my family want to go back to Los Angeles just to go to the farmers market.
Fast forward thirty years and Phoenix has its own fledgling farmers market starting to take root in the downtown area. While not as exotic or bustling as the farmers market in Los Angeles, Phoenix’s is a start in the right direction. Lots of shade, fans and misting make a hot Saturday morning bearable.
Trying to eat local, everything grown within 100 miles, is not going to be easy. We have talked about doing it, but we live in a desert. We like to start each day with our juicer, and several of our staple ingredients like apples, pears, peaches and ginger are missing. Several varieties of zucchini aren’t much consolation.
We were able to load up on carrots, peppers and onions. We get a loaf of honey wheat bread from the Bread Basket Bakery stand. The label says “baked fresh daily in Scottsdale” and smells great. The price ($3.75 a loaf) isn’t too much more than the grocery stores, but at least I am able to pronounce the five ingredients listed on the package.
We also get a package of pasta made by DeCio Pasta of Tempe, Spinach Basil Garlic linguine. The cost ($6.00 for a 12oz. package) seems a little steep, but we try it anyway.
Paying for our items turns out to be a bit of a hassle. Since we don’t have cash, we have to take a slip of paper to a designated table that handles credit/debit card transactions. Turns out that one of the hand held card readers is down and we have to stand in a line of about six people for about 15 minutes.
So we end up waiting in line twice to finally get our purchases. First to get tallied up and then a second time to show the individuals our receipts to take our items away. Next time we will remember to take cash, even if it means holding up a Circle K.
Sheila Bocchine and Gary Millard are both Phoenix photographers.
melississippi
posted on July 31st, 2007 at 9:40 pm
that looks so fun! i just read an article about how there was a trend in making your front yard a garden so that it can be like a community experience, but i think i will leave the gardening up to the farmers and just start going to the farmers market!