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We’ve all heard the story about the elementary teacher who asks her students, “Who can tell me where milk comes from?” and little voices call out, “Wegmans!”
More parents are heading to farmers markets not just to educate their kids about farm animals but to teach important family values about healthy eating, supporting small farmers, helping the environment and — especially in Rochester— building community.
In this area, we’re fortunate to have farm markets available Sunday through Thursday, from the century-old Rochester Public Market to newer neighborhood ones like the Monroe Village Farmers Market and the Brighton, South Wedge and Westside farmers markets.
The infrequent hours can discourage some customers, and we do have Wegmans and its emphasis on locally grown produce for families to use as a lesson in the importance of fresh food. But some farmers market customers make their visits something of an event. And especially in these warmer months, they sometimes get treated to more than shopping, with special offerings such as live music, kids’ corners, food tastings and even a free yoga session.
Fresh takes
The Farmers’ Market Federation of New York has a set of suggested shopping tips, but a recent trip to local markets suggests that many shoppers are already using them. You see them carrying reusable tote bags instead of plastic bags. And customers are trying new fruits and vegetables, thanks to farmers who love to talk about the dishes you can make with their produce.
Stay-at-home mom Jeni Simmons brought daughter Gemma, 5, to the Monroe Village Farmers Market on Monroe Avenue one sunny Wednesday afternoon.
“I’ve been bringing her here since she was a baby,” said Simmons. “She likes being out, and I like to people-watch. I also like to see where my food is sourced.”
Of course, Simmons buys Gemma’s vegetables there. “She eats a lot of lettuce,” with olives on top.
“And the white kind of cheese,” Gemma added.
“She means feta,” said Simmons.
On Thursdays, Jacqueline Moe, a dance teacher at Renaissance Academy Charter School of the Arts in Greece, heads for the South Wedge Farmers Market at the corner of Mt. Hope Avenue and Alexander Street with son Ari Hagelberg, 9, continuing a tradition that began when Moe herself was a child.
“Most of my family is from the Caribbean, and that’s the way they shopped,” Moe said. “When we travel, we always go to farmers markets.”
It also helps that Ari’s father, Robert, owns Workin’ in the Dirt, a Scottsville farm that prides itself on using certified organic feed and seed and leading its animals onto a fresh pasture every day. When young Ari wants fresh eggs, he can go collect them himself.
“We’ve become so disconnected from our food,” Moe explained. “Here you get to talk to the farmers, and you know you’re eating local.”
Though Ari has direct access to farm-fresh food, he has other reasons for liking the South Wedge market.
“He calls it ‘the eclectic food’ — there are so many cultures jammed in here,” said Moe as the strains of a pipa, a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, played behind her. “He’s a big veggie eater, loves asparagus and artichoke. He recently got to grow, advertise and sell garlic in a class project at Harley School.”
There’s still work to be done with their visits, though: “I can’t get him to eat fruit,” Moe said.
And there’s recognition that there’s work to be done for lower-income families, as well. This year, New York state’s Fresh Connect program gives SNAP (formerly EBT food stamp) shoppers an extra $2 token for every $5 purchase with a SNAP card. At the South Wedge market, a grant from the Rochester Area Foundation offers a $5 gift certificate on any purchase of $10 or more.
Kids and real food
The Farmers’ Market Federation of New York state wants more people to know that “the traditional meal, including meat and vegetables, travels anywhere from 1,500 to 2,400 miles to reach the kitchen table.
Farmers-market shopping changes all that by endorsing the “shop local, act global” philosophy. Jacquie Woods doesn’t have to drive far to get to the Rochester Public Market and its fresh food for sons Raistlin, 8, and Rhonin, 6.
“My grandfather would bring me here when I was little, but I didn’t come during my teens,” said Woods. “I lived on the worst kinds of food. I used to weigh 300 pounds, but when I had Raistlin, I was making sure he was eating the best food. I thought, ‘I’m kind of a hypocrite.’ I’d put him to bed, and then I’d get my boyfriend to go out to get pizza and fast food.”
Woods adopted healthier eating habits and is now 150 pounds lighter. She shops the market and does her cooking at home.
“My husband, Michael, is the head chef at Silk District Pub, so I give him a break when he comes home,” said Woods.
Her first stop at the market is for farm-fresh eggs without “all the hormones and antibiotics.”
“Raistlin loves eggs, so I buy about six dozen. He rejected meat when he was very little, so I make a lot of vegetable — not meat-based — soups. His dad will sometimes try to get him to eat meat, but there’s no forcing. Rhonin tries everything. I keep a drawer of apples and oranges, and if they’re feeling hungry outside the schedule, they know they can go there.”
And what does Rhonin eat when they go to Grandfather’s house, the man who started the public market tradition?
“Hot dogs,” said Rhonin as Woods laughed.
Fruit, farms and friends
The Yandek family — Nellie, Anthony, 3-year-old Addie and 9-month-old A.J. — are eating lunch at the Rochester Public Market after driving in from Fairport to do their weekly shopping. Nellie grew up on a New Hampshire farm with a huge garden while Anthony grew up on “pasta and salad” in Cleveland.
Together they’ll buy apples, squash, pears, carrots and sweet potatoes for A.J.’s baby food and let Addie choose the berries for snacking.
“We want to support local farmers,” said Nellie. “But, it’s also great fun. It’s entertainment to see all the people, the healthy options, the cultural mix.”
Anthony finds farm-market shopping more practical. “The food lasts. Grocery-store lettuce is the worst. It can’t last a week,” he said.
Often farm produce is picked that day, so it’s still filled with vitamins and minerals. And because it’s not traveling hundreds of miles, it’s free of irradiating, waxing or gassing to make it last longer or look better.
Over at the Brighton Farmers' Market on a glorious summer morning, families are setting up blankets on the high school lawn and catching up with neighbors. Others line up at the food trucks that edge the road.
Jessica and Pradeep Jayanna were on their way to breakfast at James Brown’s Place in Rochester from their home in Henrietta when they saw the crowds arriving at the market.
“It’s important to know what’s in your food,” said Jessica. Their daughter Sophia, 2, already helps out in the kitchen by adding spices to a dish or building a healthy banana soy milkshake.
While they’re new to the Brighton market, Pradeep said they drive out to Honeoye Falls to get their corn from Meisenzahl Farm. And their home garden is flourishing.
“I grow the usuals, but this year I put in tomatillos [Mexican husk tomatoes],” said Jessica.
“Back home in India, my mother made her own spices,” said Pradeep. “We had a family coconut farm, and everything was home-cooked. Going out was a big occasion.”
Staying away from processed food and eating a lot of vegetables guides their food choices. But after being “a vegetarian for 22 years,” Pradeep discovered he liked meat, which he can pick up at the market.
Their goal at the market is to help their daughter make good decisions about eating. “We want quality. We want to know what’s going into our bodies. We want Sophia to respect her body, and that means healthy food,” Jessica said.
Some shoppers have yet to discover that farmers markets can offer a wider variety of fruits and vegetables often grown from heirloom seeds.
Foodies especially enjoy discovering something new to use in their culinary adventures.
Local pediatrician Kate Greenberg arrives soon after the market opens with daughter Naomi, 1½. Her husband Lior will bike over with daughter Ella, 5, later on. She spreads a blanket on the grass under the trees among her friends.
“I’ve always been about delicious food, and you can find more delicious food at farmers markets. Wegmans does a great job with their seasonal vegetables, but market produce is fresher.”
“Eating the most sustainable, local and organic food intensified when we had kids,” said Greenberg, who admitted that like most doctors trained in this country, she didn’t learn a lot about nutrition in medical school. But she has worked with dieticians in her practice, and now the Greenbergs have farming shares in the Good Food Collective, and they’re at the Brighton market most Sundays.
On the next blanket over: their friend Nora Rubel, her husband, Rob Nipe, and daughter Ruby, 8 (their daughter Zoe, 13, was away at a sleepover). They prove Greenberg’s point that marketgoers get a healthy dose of socializing along with fresh produce.
“We come here every week for breakfast and to see our friends,” said Rubel. “This is a great intersection of the Brighton community.”
The Rubel-Nipes are vegans and vegetarians. The family’s eating habits changed gradually over time, and they were excited when a market opened up close to home.
“I became vegan because of my concerns for animals,” said Rubel.
Many of their meals at home depend on the available produce they’ll find at the market. The practice of shopping frequently for fresh food comes naturally to Rubel, who lived in Italy for a time. “We ate a very Mediterranean diet. My mother shopped often for what looked good.”
For Nipe, the transition to vegetarianism wasn’t so easy.
“I grew up in Michigan, and my diet was Midwestern. We had meat at every meal. Our salad was Jell-O with canned fruit,” said Nipe, who discovered new foods when he met Nora.
He even overcame his antipathy to eggplant — eggplant Parmesan had been a special dish in his wife’s childhood home — when he learned from her it could be prepared differently.
It’s the kind of lesson their children are surely learning, one meal and market visit at a time.
Local farmers markets
Several of the bigger markets include:
Rochester Public Market, 280 Union St.; 6 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 5 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays (year-round).
Brighton Farmers’ Market, 1150 S Winton Road (Brighton High School parking lot); 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays (through Nov. 19).
Monroe Village Farmers Market, 730 Monroe Ave. (Blessed Sacrament Church parking lot); 4-7 p.m. Wednesdays (through Oct. 18)
South Wedge Farmers Market, 151 Mt. Hope Ave. (Genesee Gateway Park); 4-7 p.m. Thursdays (through October).
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