A few weekends ago my fiancé and I hit the Brick Works Market. This bright, spacious market is big, beautiful and full of freshly grown food. I was super excited to get to the market since the weather is warming up, making it a more fun and inviting adventure!
The Brick Works is one of the largest farmers’ market in Toronto and it has such a cool vibe. I don’t know how to exactly describe it but I just buzz when I’m there. I know I’m a bit overzealous about fresh foods and vegetables but I think most people would agree that the ambiance inside the market is fresh and uplifting.
I get a total high from being around food and being at the market feels like someone pumped me full of some kind of happy energetic drug (pure sunshine perhaps!). I didn’t always have this strange connection to food. Back in the day I detested (eek!) vegetables. I somehow had to tolerate them when I became vegetarian at the age of 11. Eventually, I came to love and crave veggies and these days my love affair with vegetables is downright obsessive. I live for vegetables, they make me feel alive and help me to feel totally energetic. Eating raw vegetables is like eating pure sunshine (quite literally, photons of light from the sun are necessary for plants to start the production of carbohydrates and to generate oxygen). To be around that energy gives me such a rush that most people don’t understand.
So in order to connect with that insane natural high I suggest you get yourself to the nearest farmer’s market, and soon!
Some fun facts about farmers’ markets:
- You can actually talk to the people that harvest or make the food you are buying! We had a nice little chat with a fermentation guru and loved his take on Kim-chi…yumm
- You can sample freshly picked vegetables. I’ve never heard or tried sorrel but was freely offered a sample to munch on
- There are tons of free samples; case in point sorrel and raw chocolate
- You are usually buying directly from the farmer, chef or producer so prices are usually cheaper and they get more of the profit to sustain themselves
- You can consciously choose to support local organic farmers and know that you are preserving and fortifying our land to produce nutritious food for you and for generations to come
- You can buy artisanal goods such as bread, cheese and fermented foods
- You get to see local foods and herbs you may not normally get at your local organic grocer like chaga, a medicinal mushroom.
Hopefully I’ve got you as excited about farmers’ markets as I am. Happy food buying!
Peace and veggies,
~Michelle
Holistic Nutritionist.
