I discovered the farmer’s market a few years after moving to the US. State College lays nestled in primarily agricultural land. It’s farmers market galore here!

My first experience with the market may sound familiar to you. The baked goods attracted attention. However, I quickly came to the conclusion that the chocolate chip cookie is three times the price of that at the grocery store. The market seemed like an overpriced waste of money.

We overhauled our diet in 2014. I read big, fat books on diet. It was life changing, except for a caveat. Where would I find the things mentioned? Bones for broth? Spring butter? Grade B maple syrup, raw milk and honey to name a few seemed unachievable.

Not knowing where to begin, I walked over to the farmer’s market with very little hope. I still remember how the market came alive in front of my eyes that day. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Here was a vendor selling bones for broth. Raw milk, raw butter and cream were at the next booth. Maple syrup, raw honey, Alaskan salmon, you name it! What changed? Not the market, but how I perceived it. The things that were previously invisible to me grabbed my attention.

My diet plan follows the recommendations made by Dr. Weston Price, a dentist in early 1900s whose son died at 14 following a root canal. He then travelled around the world visiting remote indigenous cultures to establish a correlation between indigenous diets and beautiful jaw structure. Following his research, he made diet recommendations.

To my biggest surprise, some Amish farmers that I spoke to knew about Dr. Price and even carried his books with them.

So how do you navigate the market? It helps to have a list. If you have a plan depending on what you are trying to accomplish from the market, you are going to love it and benefit tremendously from it.

The Weston Price diet avoids sugar and white flour. Occasionally you can find a baker who uses whole wheat and maple syrup for baking. I buy from them, but stay away from the others. If you are into sugary baked goods, you can consider buying it at the market. Pricing aside for the moment, the ingredients at least does not have strange chemicals listed in them. The baked goods from the market are more wholesome.

An important part of shopping at the market is to try to gauge the farmers. I go and ask new vendors if they are organic. Some are certified organic. Others use organic practices. Some are non organic. You will have good results from asking the farmers. Most people don’t lie to your face. I do try to shop with vendors that I like and who feel like good people to me. Over time relationships and friendships develop. At the market, vendors have told me that if they made a mistake and charge less for their product, customers will correct them and pay the difference rather than walking off and cheating them. The vendors that you know will give you a freebie like an onion or extra lettuce. Unlike a grocery store, a farmers market is an honest place that thrives on human kindness and friendships. People share recipes with each other and the vendors.

This brings me to the next point. The market is a social hub. Sometimes if I am short on time, I find it annoying to stop and chit chat. But in general, beautiful friendships form at this hub of like minded people. You run into a lot of the same people every week. They become your friends.

It is important, though, to gauge your vendors. Some are very business-like and don’t gel. On one hand, it is understandable. They are, after all, here to make a sale and not chit chat. But without the personal interaction, you don’t know what you are buying. It may be something that they just bought wholesale from somewhere and are selling to you. This question often plays in my mind, and I am frequently suspicious even about people I have known for a long time. Ultimately, you are never going to know for sure, so all you can do is to trust your instincts and rely on long term relationships. I don’t let down my farmer friends, and they don’t let me down.

People who don’t shop at the market will often bring the trust issue. How can you trust them? My question is, how can you trust Walmart or a large chain to do the right thing? They often have dubious labels that are sometimes even a blatant lie. Remember, the managers of large grocery stores don’t know you, don’t care about you. Their interest is only to make money off you. You are a number, a statistic to them. They don’t come face to face with you. There is zero accountability. I would rather tie my faith to people I see, talk to, ask. People who shake their heads and laugh at the hard work they are putting in. It shows. And if it doesn’t show, I don’t buy from them.

A word about the pricing. People say that farmers market is expensive. I will say that it is untrue. If you look a little deeper, you will agree with me. The cookie you bought at the market was made, transported and sold by the same person or family. Time was spent on transportation and at the market and it needs to be accounted for in the cost. Inefficient, you say? I disagree. The grocery store uses poor, strange ingredients to come up with a cookie that does unknown damage to your body. It was made in some polluting factory exploiting some poorly paid, overworked people who probably hate you for their miserable life. It was transported across the country or even the world thereby causing pollution. The ingredients meet no agricultural standards. So your cheap cookie comes at the cost of pollution, exploitation of people, resources and the environment, and your health. You will pay it down the road when you have to make trips to the doctor. Nothing in life is free. Additionally, paying farmers keeps the money local and benefits your community rather than lining the pockets of some rich, private plane-flying manager somewhere far off. So please consider all the costs, not what just leaves your pocket at that moment.

Another quick example: The other day I bought a salmon fillet from the market. It was small and costed the same as a large pizza. But compare the health benefits of the salmon to the lack of it in a pizza and the salmon works out to be way cheaper.

Again outlining, to get the most out of a farmers market, have a plan. Make a list. Know your vendor. Take some time to establish a personal connection.

Buy vegetables at the market. The simplest recipe tastes better than a king’s meal. Buy meat from good, caring people. Buy your milk raw from a good, upstanding farmer. I get milk at $7 a gallon, raw and from pasture fed cows. Compare with the $6 half gallon ultra pasteurized organic milk stored at the grocery store. I get $3-$4 a dozen eggs from free ranging hens. The animals have a happier lifestyle and I think most of us want to support that.

One drawback of shopping at the market is that, initially at least, you will have to spend time and effort to get to the right people. Overall it is a bit more time consuming. I am happy to spend my time on it. But I realize others may not have that luxury.

Another drawback: you will only find local, in season products. So if you are planning that elaborate Thai dinner, you will still need to make a stop at the grocery store. The winter market only has root and some leafy green vegetables.

Oops, my animals are looking mad. I guess they have something to say.

Kylo Ren the dog: Hmph. Mom took a lot of time. Well, the main thing that I wanted to say about the topic of the day is this. My mommy is a hypocrite. She is recommending that everyone goes to the market. But guess what?! She never takes me! I would go to all the meat vendors and beg for a piece. But sigh. My dearest mom leaves me in the car or at home. Oh, to get my jaws on that juicy piece of chicken! Yumm!!

Lazy Laurie the chicken: (eyes popping out). What?! I knew it. Kylo Ren the monster wants to put his jaws around a piece of chicken. That’s why I always steer my friends away from this terrible monster dog. If one of them is so foolish as to interact with him, I have used countless deflection tactics to keep them safe. I deserve my top spot in the pecking order and the largest piece of moldy pancake.

As far as the market is concerned, my chicken friends and I will stay far away from it. One day I had hidden in the car that mom drove to the market, just out of curiosity. I saw her buy chicken drumsticks. I was so scared. The car had 6 frozen drumsticks that day, 4 frozen in the farmers freezer, and two frozen but shivering with fear under me. Never again!