I couldn't understand why I was about to gnaw my arm off and farmer's markets

... and then I realized it was 4:30 pm and I hadn't really eaten anything substantial since 1 pm the day before. And even that meal, while totally satiating and delicious (a Fiesta salad of romaine lettuce, black beans, a bit of sweet corn, a couple tortilla chips, fresh salsa, a half avocado and a sprinkling of Mexican cheese topped with about 4 ounces of thin, lean strips of broiled beef), when I tallied my calories for yesterday in the evening, it was low - like 900 calories low.

So, I repeated my usual half and half in the coffee in the morning and protein bar around noon, but starting at 1 pm my body was saying, "Where's the real food damn it?" And I couldn't figure out why I was so hungry! Well, doy!!!!

To hold off the demons, I just ate a quartered tomato, sprinkled from salt, picked this morning to be sold at the farmer's market. Oh my gosh yum!!! And I drank two tall glasses of sparkling water too. That should hold me until we have a yummy dinner tonight.

Farmer market season is my favorite too. I can't raise my own veggies as we have way too many critters, but I buy things from the farmers market a couple days a week. I buy a ton from there - about 2/3s of our produce during late spring through early fall comes from the markets. I also buy eggs and meat from local farms. It's not cheaper, but it's same price and WAY BETTER than the grocery store. I simply do not understand why people don't frequent them more (or do CSAs more). I don't do a CSA because I'm chicken and because I want to be able to choose more of what I want to get, but maybe next year I'll do it - we'll see.

But when I go to these markets, I buy 2 quarts of beans, a melon, a dozen or so of tomatoes, 3-4 peppers, a few squash, 8-10 ears of corn, etc. And then of course I buy fruit! We eat a big bunch of veggies with every single dinner and I buy that much every single week. Yet, for years and years when I go to these markets, most people buy 1-2 ears of corn, 1 pint of cherry tomatoes and maybe 3-4 peaches. That's it.  But then, in grocery stores I don't see people buying it either.

Today the farmer guy was saying, "What are you going to do with all that?" I said, "eat it! We all eat a ton of veggies in our family." And he said, "I do too, summer time I gorge on tomatoes." I said,  "We do too. We have tomato salad or sliced tomatoes with nearly every meal." Then he asked, "Do you can?" And I said, "Well, I did, but I haven't seen any tomato seconds, so I haven't yet." Then he said, "I have 20 pounds in the back of the truck for $20 bucks. Want 'em?" And I said, "Sure do!" And then I added 20 pounds of tomatoes to can. ONLY the imperfect tomatoes are sold at a reduced price and to this day, I have never seen what made them imperfect except for maybe a compression dent/mark on the side - you know, things that make it look like it's really from nature and not molded from plastic!

Do people just not realize how much better tasting farmer fresh produce is? Are we that lazy? Or do people simply not like vegetables? (On that, I have converted more than one person who said they didn't like a particular vegetable just by preparing it better... so there is that too - people don't know how to prepare food properly!)

There is just no comparing a farm fresh tomato and a store bought tomato. Even those that are local and sold in the grocery stores... They are still picked too soon, but when they are that deep, dark, red. oh my goodness... food bliss!