Market Madness

One of the first things I always recommend people to change their daily spending habits is to buy fruit and vegetables. It has become so easy to buy a plastic sac of pre-cut, mixed vegetables in supermarkets and instead of buying fresh, raw products at a local farmers market. Nowadays every, somewhat major, city has at least one weekly fresh fruits and veggies market as they are becoming more and more popular. I recommend buying your greens here for several reasons; Firstly, because the fruit and vegetable market is usually much fresher. Between the cultivation of vegetables and sales to consumers are far fewer third-party services, this ensures that less needs to be transported and therefore the produces will survive longer and the quality will be preserved. Furthermore, the quality will less affected by natural sunlight instead of supermarket conditions where food will be sold underneath fluorescent tubes, in cramped spaces. Often the fruits and vegetables sold on local markets are considered to be of inferior quality because are shaped somewhat more oddly compared to those sold in stores. A good example is that a cucumber which may be somewhat more curvy or carrots which may have a twined root, however their uniqueness does not translate into a less tastier green. Although they will be classified as so-called b products and therefore be sold much cheaper. On most farmers markets, there are large stacks of certain foods for sale, these are vegetable or fruits that are already very ripe and seasonal. The sacks are usually sold for a few euros and when you pay close attention perfectly save to buy. It is important to check whether or not there are any rotten products inside, if so check if they have effected the surrounding ones. Ripe fruits and veggies are perfect to stock up on when they incorporated into dishes and frozen afterwards very rapidly. Ripe fruit are excellent for making compotes, smoothies and jams. Vegetables, on the other hand, come in handy if you were planning to make a big pot of soup or pickling vegetables for later on. Another reason why I find buying from the farmers is more responsible is because it is environmental friendly. Often products in the supermarket are individually stored plastic bags which are thrown away immediately after consumption. Bringing your own cloth bag or basket to a farmers market saves a lot of plastic and prevents it from getting thrown out on the streets and creating more garbage. It is becoming a real hype to bring your own bag so the fashion industry has responded to this by offering many trendy shoppers in all shapes and sized. I myself love the Primark bags and have made several bags myself just to personalize them a bit.