THE TOP REASONS AMERICANS ARE FASCINATED WITH FARMER’S MARKETS…ESPECIALLY FRENCH ONES!

This Little Piggy Went To Market

The earliest Farmer’s Markets date back 5000 years to Egypt where farmers would gather along the Nile and sell their produce.  In 1752 the Easton Market opened in the United States and is the longest-running market recorded.  As long as people have been eating, markets have been a part of our dinners.  Shopping at an open-air market can conjure up different images for everyone.  For me….I become French!

MEMORIES OF PAST MARKETS ARE ALWAYS GOOD

We have traveled several times to the south of France where indeed pretending is much easier.  When we get back to the states, we act French for a while but images like these stay with me a lot longer.  Today let’s go to the market to feed our souls just as much as our bodies.

MARKETS ENCOURAGE ECO FRIENDLY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION 

Market-goers may travel via a bike, with a vintage crate full of wrapped veggies, florals, and bread.  A bike which is parked in front of a shop that still sells books we can touch.  It’s obvious from the burnished door knocker on the cracked wood door, the worn smooth marble shopfront, and the pavers that have been walked on for centuries, we are somewhere other than the US.  Yet, can you see how we know this bike belongs to a fellow imposter?  Somehow they found one of the only plastic bags in the city!  Busted!

To be perfectly honest, this is the bike I’d want.  Dual baskets (look at the one for bread!) and parked in front of a Bakery.  It’s obvious we are to put the fragile pastries in the front basket.

EVERYONE AT A MARKET LOOKS FASHIONABLE

Market bags are as unique as each of us.  So many to choose from and all help us to…..

REUSE  REDUCE  RECYCLE 

MARKETS ENCOURAGE US TO EAT WELL AND SUPPORT LOCAL VENDORS

Ok, yes this should have been a photo of loads of veggies…but this is really how Mr. LBD feels.  He dutifully goes with me to every market, in every city we visit and at home, but has a personal aversion to any roasted vegetable.  This may be the only thing we disagree on.  Well, in my French mind.

JEAN-TALON MARKET

Little Italy, Montreal

If a trip to France is not on your schedule, you might consider this market which was founded in 1933 and is at least in the same hemisphere.  It is open year-round, even during Montreal’s severe winters!  During the peak summer period, between May and October, its open-air arcades are occupied by about 300 vendors, mostly farmers from the countryside around Montreal.  It is surrounded by other food businesses: meat, fish, and cheese stores, bulk food emporia, dealers in spices and imported goods, bakeries, and restaurants.  Because nearly every vendor speaks both French and English, it’s the perfect place to pretend you are French!  A constant smile and the appropriate Bonjour and Merci and I bet they all think I am (not).

Every piece of produce is fresh and so clean you can munch on the way home.

Seafood, meats, poultry.  It’s a one stop shop.  Not a preservative in sight.

Mr. LBD’s Vegetables (olives count right?)

Americans do not treat themselves often enough to “just because” flowers.  Another easy way to be “French”.

The French don’t pretend they have to do everything themselves.  Not doing the baking must be the secret to staying skinny.

Market Trips Are Part Of A Lifestyle

So you can see that the actual food is not the main reason we want to go to market.  It’s more of a mindset of how we want to live, an event and a way to simply feel good by making a task we have to do something to look forward to.