Saturday Mornings for the Boards gang usually find us heading out to the Farmer's Market downtown to do our weekly shopping. Due to various schedule issues I had not had the opportunity to go yet this year, and this past Saturday was my first for the growing season.
Our Farmer's Market is a small, but busy affair and it was exciting to see all of the same faces I saw last season, albeit a season older. It was also the first Saturday for a couple that we have gotten to know who are taking a stab at organic farming. The last time we had seen them Kelly was about to pop with a baby. So naturally, their first question was "How is the baby?" So we filled them in on what had transpired over the past few months that we had not seen them. They were sympathetic and sorry for what we had lost, and so the went the conversation. And on the conversation continued, turning next to how the season was starting for them, the frustrations of too much rain too soon, the question of whether to start raising livestock, etc.
What occurred to me during our conversation and during the rest of the time at the market was how much I enjoyed shopping here. And it occurred to me that my enjoyment came from much more than the fresh food, my enjoyment was coming from the relationships I was developing with the farmers who grow my food. It was the human connection that I was craving. We tend to live in a very detached culture that feels it is largely independent of the need for relationships to get by. And so, I was reminded from this very mundane, normal Saturday morning that people indeed matter and that we are created with the need to know and be known. It is a joy to share your trials and tribulations with another human, even when you are shopping!
2 comments:
There is a new awakening in our country, and maybe others, of eating locally as much as possible. I had not thought of this being one of the reasons why. Yet, I know friends who regularly go to the Rockport farmer's market and since there is not much produce actually grown around here a good part of it must be the sense of community it provides. We all look and yearn for community. I go for the Amish goods. They make the best cinnamon rolls and cherry pies EVAH.
We always run into a friend or two there, and get to talking, and the crafty-handed ladies selling their wares shoo us away for obstructing business! Well, la-te-da, we think, and maybe next time we'll stop and talk TO her, isn't that what markets are for, not simply gathering the filthy lucre (yes, upon which we all depend a bit). :)
K.
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