Seeing local producers realizing their own potential makes us realize that we too are capable of great things.
So much food to grow, with seedlings courtesy of Lane's End Farm at the Coffee Creek Farmers Market.
"What is independence without growing our own food?"
This is the phrase that ends the weekly email to customers from Native Roots Farm, one of the farms at the Coffee Creek Farmers Market, and the founding entity of our market. Damien Appel, the owner and farmer of Native Roots, shares the weekly ups and downs of vegetable farming in this newsletter. You can read this week’s here.
Farmers markets are what the 4th of July is all about, in my mind. In a time when we all love to hate politics, when it seems that we’d either like to scream our opinions into the social media void or clam up about them with our own families (or both), when we show up to a farmers market we are all on the same page:
Local food, grown and produced by local people. Everyone can get on board with that.
Local pride is just as powerful as patriotism (and perhaps wiser?). Knowing that our neighbors are feeding us and keeping our community vibrant, and that we all get to be a part of it, is a pretty darn good feeling.
Seeing these neighbors realizing their own potential with their art form (because man, you should see the food at the market – it is all art!) makes us realize that we too are capable of great things. After all, these folks are from our hometowns.
Clockwise from top left: Native Roots Farm stand; strawberries from Kajers Greens; sourdough from House of Rufus; radishes from Kajers; chocolatines from Bao's Pastry; flowers from H&H Flowers
And then there’s the economics – we all have to eat. Knowing that our local areas are capable of growing good and healthy food, and that this food can sustain us, is empowering. As we all take baby steps each week, each month, each year to shop locally and eat seasonally, we feel even more empowered!
Come celebrate independence this week by getting your local food at the market. Thank a farmer this 4th of July. Harvest something from your own garden. Be safe, and see you at the market!
Find us this week and every week at our Wednesday market at the Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve Pavilion parking lot, April 20-November 2, 2022, from 3-7 PM. Check us out on Facebook and Instagram, and sign up for our mailing list to get notified of all of the vendors' featured products each week.
Starting June 20, vote for the Coffee Creek Farmers Market as your favorite market and help us to win part of this year's $10,000 prize from American Farmland Trust and the Farmers Market Coalition! Click here to cast your vote for us and get a free No Farms No Food bumper sticker!
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