Farmers Market

As summer hits full swing in Minnesota the farms and gardens are starting to produce an abundance of the fruits and veggies we’ve been missing for so many months.  When I see that first ripe tomato at the farmers market, I drool just thinking about all the possibilities: a thick slice on my egg sandwich in the morning, a beautiful Caprese salad (mozzarella, tomato, basil, and balsamic vinegar) for lunch, or even thick slices as a side for dinner.  To me there is nothing that signifies summer more than that first bite into a juicy, sweet, and flavorful Minnesota-grown tomato!

But that’s not it, with summer comes cucumbers with more snap than any you could buy at the grocery store, carrots that actually have sweet flavor, peppers the color of the rainbow – pink, purple, red, green, yellow, orange!, broccoli and cauliflower that make you wonder what you’ve been eating for the last 9 months because there’s no way they could be the same as these wonderful tasting vegetables, and fresh herbs that brighten up any meal and make your home smell amazing.  Needless to say, going to a farmers’ market in July is one of my favorite things to do.

Farmers’ markets are a great place to go with the family.  You can teach your kids about all the different vegetables that grow in Minnesota.  Talk with the farmer at the stand, have your kids smell and even taste the unique vegetables.  Ask the farmer how it grows; they love to talk about their passion.  And research shows that when youth connect with how their food is grown they are more likely to eat that food in the future – therefore promoting healthful eating habits.

For a list of the farmers markets near you check out the Minnesota Grown website http://www3.mda.state.mn.us/mngrown/ You can search for local foods by your zip code, city, or by your favorite local food products.

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Jamie Bain is a Health and Nutrition Extension Educator for the East Metro. Her passions are working with youth, local foods access, and cooking healthy delicious food (preferably from the garden!).  She believes that communities are only as healthy as their food systems. Before working with Extension, she worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the metro area with a focus of holistic health for all and received her Master’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Minnesota in 2006. You can link to the Extension Health and Nutrition website at:  http://www.extension.umn.edu/health/