Why are you shopping at the grocery store??? Why would you buy fruits and vegetables in that strange florescent-lit, air-conditioned building, where all the tomatoes look the same, and you have no idea where they came from???
if it were winter, i could give you a break...
if you are poor, maybe i'll let it slide, but i'll tell you later an alternative.
if you don't know where else to shop,

have you ever heard of a farmer's market??

i can pretty much guarantee that wherever you live, you wouldn't have to go too far to find one. you can get local, organic (maybe not certified, but close enough), fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season, and didn't have to travel more than a couple hours. you can meet the people that picked your peaches, that picked your tomatoes and squash, and you can ask them questions about how to cook with vegetables you may not be as familiar with. (usually the answer is cut em up and fry them with oil and salt)..

not only can you get fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market, but homemade cheese, bread, sweet stuff, granola, herbs, eggs, free-range meat, flowers, and even soap. maybe even clothes. and when you eat your fresh, local food, you can feel good that you are supporting local farmers instead of big business factory farms.

so go to the farmer's market!! be healthy!! appreciate where food comes from!!!
appreciate the people who grow your food!! what would you do without them??? support farmers!!

okay, fine, so you want some mangoes, i love mangoes! fine so you want bananas. so you want beer, you want rice and oreo cookies and tofu and soy sauce. well, i'm not saying you shouldn't go buy those things, but go there on your way back from the farmer's market.

and here's a little secret.... if you can't afford to pay real prices for real food, you can still go to the farmer's market. they sell "seconds" of a lot of things for really cheap, and they're not bad, they just don't look perfect. or if you have a few free hours on the weekends, you can ask the farmer if they need help selling, and you can usually get paid in money and food. also, if you're poor and you have a lot of time, you should go to the farmer's market at the end, when there's all this food they couldn't sell, and offer to take it to people who need it, like a food bank, or food not bombs, or something, and then have some for yourself.

so,
find your local farmer's market.
and go!
every week!
twice a week!
tell your friends!
meet new friends there!
be healthy!

i've been here at the farm about a month now.
people are leaving to go back to college, and i'm only just beginning.
tomatoes so many tomatoes
too many to sell. if you like tomatoes, and you live in the dc area, please, come buy them. falls church on saturdays, takoma park maryland on sundays. the ones we can't sell, we give away to food banks, and eat ourselves back at the farm, but a lot of them get composted, food for the chickens.
i pick tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, green beans, lettuce, basil, parsley, blueberries, beets, leeks, garlic, and onions, even okra.
i'm working hard for my money these days.
gnats in my eyes, arms itching from tomatoes, legs itching from squash, the rest of my body itching from mosquito bites...my back sore from bending over all day, all so people can have tasty, organic, local vegetables.
at the end of the days, i swim in the pond, which is getting closer to being a puddle every day. we eat dinner all together, taking turns cooking. our food comes from the farm, the co-op, costco, and the dumpster.
i hang my laundry on a chicken tractor
i watch the little chicks get big so fast
i hear bullfrogs at night, and let fireflies light my way from the kitchen to the barn i sleep in
i help load and unload the market truck 3 times a week
i drink fresh raw milk
i watch birthing videos
i take sweaty naps in the middle of the day
i love working on a farm
but i don't think i'll do it again after this season, at least for a while
it's really kinda strange to be in this new place, but be so close to where i grew up, driving down the same highways, but it's cool to sell vegetables to my mom.

so life is good. i'm reading The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan and Johnny Appleseed is now my new hero.

anyone is welcome to come visit me at the farm, especially on mondays, our day off.