Hello fellow eaters:
This week is the fabulous sweet corn festival, back at our usual spot at west 65th and west clinton. I have enjoyed myself so much at some of the previous sweet corn festivals simply by sitting at the market, eating freshly roasted corn, and conversing with friends and neighbors about what is going on in the world. There is no question that fresh, good sweet corn is truly a treat, but corn is a tricky thing to love in some ways. I grew up physically surrounded by it (and soybeans), and many of my extended family members make their living growing it (and its close buddy popcorn), running their vehicles on its oil, and heating their barns with it. But, as many of you know, industrial corn growing in the US is one of the worst offenders in terms of extreme monoculture, extreme pesticide and herbicide use, the use of petroleum-based products to grow food and transport it long distances in its many forms, the acceleration and expansion of genetic modification practices possibly past our ability to evaluate their effects, the lopsided subsidies of the federal agriculture policy, and the subtle and not so subtle sweetening of all manner of processed foods--15 years ago I had a teaching assistant whose parents sent him unsweetened peanut butter from canada! peanut butter! Now I know that you might get poked with a pitchfork if you suggest an end to price supports for sugar among some beet farmers, but corn really has the numbers, and really, who wants to pick a fight with beets. Nonetheless, as bart simpson has said, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And what better time to think about (and maybe wean from) unnecessary added sweetness than during a drought when the price of corn is going to go through the roof, adding quite a bit to the cost of said added sweetness and other things, (including chicken feed for some friendly layers whom I know). We vote with our pocketbooks and our taste buds, and we can choose to eat corn when we want corn and choose not to eat corn (or to eat less of it) in some of its stealth forms in other things, say peanut butter or ice cream or breakfast cereal or mayonnaise or ketchup or granola bars or salad dressing, et al., ad nauseum. It is not only a question of high fructose corn syrup versus sugar; the question is whether we really want all of these things to be uniformly sweet --or do we want something more diverse. And the answer will certainly be different in different households, heck, even on different plates, possibly even in different times of year; why not experiment? So, gentle eater, this might be a year in which sweet corn is really a treat rather than something whose apparently infinite supply we take for granted or, pardon my french, pig out on. However, there will probably be enough corn at the market this week that you can pig out a little bit.
In addition to sweet corn, here is what I know will be available.
EcoVillage Produce will have a variety of tomatoes, red and green and beautiful purple-y, big and bite-sized, you get the picture. They will also have tuscan kale (and sample of a easy and tasty recipe), cabbage, napa cabbage, collards, eggplant, wax beans, green beans, another kind of beans that I forgot, peppers (red, green, banana, jalapeño, paprika), new red chieftain potatoes, and herbs including rosemary, sage, thyme, lovage, stevia, and a player to be named later.
Golden Gate Garden will have beans, squash, potatoes, peppers, greens, kohlrabi, and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, he will also have herbs and flowers.
There will be yoga at the market this and every week, woo hoo! Class is from 11-12 and is open to all levels of practice. the class is donation-based and will meet in the labyrinth across the street from the market.
The Gordon Square Farmers' Market: more food, fewer tourists.
GSFM is usually located in the parking lot of Bethany Presbyterian Church at W. 65th and West Clinton streets (one block south of Detroit Ave.).
Every Saturday through October, 10am-2pm.
Feed back? Please email or talk to us at the GSFM booth on Saturday.
www.gordonsquaremarket.org
No comments:
Post a Comment