UDJ 7-4 Column
From CFI
The Freshness Challenge
Do the challenges and curveballs on this big ol’ goofy world sometimes seem just a bit overdone? Do we really, for example, need a drought and a huge late freeze and a historic plague of fire and bad air – all with nearly half the year yet to come?
If you need examples of the relentless way nature can pick apart our best intentioned plans, ask a farmer. They get to deal with it all, often. Thanks to things like weather and bugs, farming is a profession in which doing everything perfectly is often not good enough. Yet, regardless of what they may endure, we expect farmers to have food ready for us when we need it.
For small scale farmers committed to bringing you heirloom and/or seasonal and fresh food the challenges are yet greater. It is customers who get most of the benefit.
As discussed here before, foods tend to have the highest nutrient content when fresh, along with the best aroma, taste, texture and look. To use the vernacular, fresh food rocks. (Think of fresh as less decomposed.)
Farmer’s markets provide the freshest possible food. But, by leaving those berries or tomatoes on the vine until they are ripe the farmer takes a substantial risk.
If the weather turns bad, if customers decide that it is more convenient to shop elsewhere or to stay away for any other reason, local small farmers have little chance of making up the loss. Unlike larger farmers growing less healthy product, they also don’t get subsidies to help them through natural or market fluctuations.
As for getting you the freshest, healthiest possible food, one important strategy is to know the schedule of all the farmer’s markets in the area. Ukiah has a Tuesday afternoon market on School Street under the pavilion in Alex Thomas Plaza. It runs from 3-6 PM for the convenience of people who work in and around Ukiah. For those in the know, the Tuesday market was the perfect place to start celebrating our independence by supporting small farmers while stocking up for the Fourth of July holiday. At the Tuesday Market you will find great local flowers, fish, fruit and berries, produce and more.
Work in Ukiah but live in Redwood Valley? You can freshen up your supplies at the Tuesday Ukiah market but enjoy the nearby Sunday Redwood Valley market to stock up for the week. Rumor has it the Sunday Redwood Valley market has lots of great local produce this year. Go check it out from 9:30 AM to 1 PM in Lion’s Park.
Having markets at different times and places is one way that we make shopping at farmer’s markets convenient. It also allows our farmers to harvest regularly, as things ripen, so that they are always as fresh as possible. For a full schedule of the farmer’s markets in Mendocino County check http://mcfarm.org/ or get a copy of the schedule at the Friends of MCFARM table at the market.
A huge thanks to those who supported last Saturday’s market despite the adverse conditions. Thanks also to the Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce for helping our patrons breath easy by allowing us to offer quality particulate respirators at the manufacturer’s cost.
Until the air is reliably healthy the Saturday Farmer’s Market will forego many of our previously planned family oriented activities. However, because you still need to eat and because our local farmers still need to get their great products to you as fresh as possible, the market itself will continue every Saturday from 8:30 to Noon at School and Clay Streets.
At the market tomorrow, come check out the fine playing of guitarist Jim Tuhtan playing jazz standards with bass player Christian Frey. Jim is co-owner of Jitterbox Music (200 State St) and also hosts Open Mike Wednesday Nights (signups start at 7:30, music starts at 8:30) at the Ukiah Brewing Company. Speaking of local things at Ukiah Brewing Company, they are one of our local restaurants that uses as much locally produced food as possible. But that is a column for another week.
