Saturday, August 01, 2009

smarmy farmy: a vent

back from the farmers market.
buy anything?
oh, yes.
purchased some local clean beef.
anything else?, you ask?
no.
No!
organic veggies?
zuc, cucs, tomatoes. yeah. same things as in my garden.
any fruits?
nope.
sprayed.
sprayed, sprayed, sprayed!
(and not even pretty!)

dh tries to hide his laughs from me in the car while I grumble and vent... he says it's more evidence of my idealism.
fine. call it what you will.
i'm not interested in going out of my way to support people who won't even try to do the right thing.
pff. You'd think farmers would be more willing to take care of the earth (and water and air and children), wouldn't you???
I'll just make jam out of my Mirabelle's, can my pears, wait for more raspberries and blackberries, and wait for my cherry tree to grow tall.

I'm going to make a shirt this week to wear at the early a.m. market next week that says "Organic First!" so there.

i'll try to move on, now....

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Oh, that is a disappointment. Especially in an area that should have so many more options.

Did you tell the vendors that you wanted non-sprayed? Maybe your questions and then walking away without buying anything got through to them, but maybe not.

When I started a farmer's market here in our area three years ago, none of the vendors grew organic or 'natural'. All were conventionally grown (tons of pesticides and petroleum-derived fertilizers). Know how many of those vendors listened to the demand for organic/naturally grown vegetables and now are filling that niche? Zero. Not a single one. "You can't grow anything in any quantity without fertilizers and pesticides." "People want cheap and I'd have to charge more for the extra time I put in." So many excuses.

What bothers me is that fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides applied by a home gardener are likely *more* harmful on their food because they are not as precise in the amounts they use as a commercial operation is. A small operation or home garden using these things would probably get healthier food at a grocery store. *sigh*

Not that this is a pet peeve of mine or anything. lol

Stephanie said...

At first I looked for "organic" signs... and that's where I found zucs and friends. :) Don't need any of those, lol.

Then I started asking for "not sprayed", knowing that the tag of "organic" costs farmers big bucks for certification.
They looked at me like I was crazy, and some were downright snotty.

I was pretty aggravated.

Jumbleberry Jam said...

Unthinkable! I have a t-shirt from a cafe here that says, "All organic. All the time." I wear it often - especially in public :-)

Julie said...

Looks like that's a niche that hasn't been filled here yet, unfortunately:( I wonder why? Maybe us urban homesteaders could go in on some land to start an organic orchard. Or try to locate all the un-sprayed trees around town that aren't utilized by people. Makes me want to plant more trees than I had originally intended.

Julie said...

hey, I thought I would look up organic fruit here and found Borski Organic Farms www.borskifarms.org (their at the downtown market) and they list cherries, apricots, peaches, raspberries, apples & melons.

There's also the Copper Moose Farm in Park City (selling sunday at the Park Silly Market), they list cantaloupe, melons & raspberries.

MamaLou said...

WOW! I live in an area with a HIGH demand for organic....and just the responsibility we have for our planet - we've recently been watching films like KING CORN, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO, HIJACKED FUTURE etc, The state of our food supply is shocking! We plant our home garden every year with my mum and would not allow her to put on any chemical fertilizers this year. She was very upset, and thought we were doomed. Our tomatoes in the greenhouse are STUNNING - better than when we fertigated them with chemical ferts. We purchased a certified organic fertilizer to go with manure etc and MAN, our garden has never never looked better. Hope we can't blame only the amazing weather!