The Zucchini Girls and the Goat Wrangler

A delightful pro-active shopping adventure

I love farmers’ markets. They are in a different dimension of shopping. I noticed recently at the grocery store that most people don’t look at each other. They are all in their own worlds. Everything is dehumanized. You’re not buying food but rather ‘product.’ You don’t talk to anyone about what you’re buying and you may only say two or three words to the checkout clerk. Gathering the food that we eat has become an impersonal and perfunctory task that generates no enthusiasm and resonates at a low vibration. The dull lighting and canned air of the grocery store doesn’t help.

I was pretty well stocked up on produce at home but I went to the farmer’s market anyway. The only thing I needed was zucchini. Making the round of stalls, I saw that there were five people selling zucchini. Normally, my main concern with produce is whether it is organic or not. Other concerns include local origin, GMO’s, and corporate affiliation. But at a farmer’s market other concerns come into play.

The zucchini all five stalls were selling looked rather identical. Same size, same color; I’m sure there was little or no difference in quality. So it was not a matter of finding the best zucchini to buy but rather finding the best people to buy it from. That is something that doesn’t happen in the grocery store.

Three of…