Fresh, Local Seasonal food found in local Farmer's Markets near you, Global, local, Once Upon a Market

Once Upon a Market

A long long time ago…

…or so fairy tales begin, I had an idea that we should find ways to use our food more efficiently. Buying in bulk may at first seem the logical progression from small subsistence farming but how did it benefit us as a global society. At the very least, food is the major commodity!

Worth less than gold or silver, found in many shapes and sizes, and freely available, our food is still our most precious resource after water. We can find it in trees, hanging off of bushes or buried beneath plants in the ground, and yet without it we weaken rapidly and in an expanding world, this is a precious resource to protect.

Global Gardening

Walking into a supermarket, we can see the four corners of the globe presented to us. From Africa and Australia in the South to Canada and Norway in the North, we can buy something from most places today. The little stamp on the back shouting out to us that we are eating a product produced in a far off land gives us a new taste of another world we may never of seen.

The items that most concerned me were the fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and eggs. The staples of our food journey. Some fruits seem to be in season all year long and others proudly boasted of being transported many miles. I often walk past the reduced section to see what is no longer considered worthy of Full Price to see food spoiling in plastic wrappers and cellophane.

Market, food, surplus, stall, fresh, organic, honey, jam, homemade, Local Seasonal ProduceThe moment everything came together for me was noticing that the year often offered a bounty at the harvesting times. Spinach can be grown and plucked when required, Rhubarb can be taken, cooked and preserved in jams or put in a pies, and we have learnt that to look after grains we need to store them in silos for the winter months. Yet we seem to have gone overboard!

Storing grain for later on in the year has little effect on the base food group while in storage. Potatoes need to be looked after during the cooler months but they hold a lot of the starches required for our energy level. Leaving an apple in storage, seems to reduce it’s effectiveness in retaining valuable vitamins and minerals. It may appear to look fresh after many months but it is of little nutritional value.

Herein lies our problem then, we cannot keep fresh food indefinitely and we cannot store most foods without some nutritional cost disadvantage.

Seasonal

There is also the point about eating seasonally. To enhance our cooking styles we are offered a variety of ingredients from around the world every day of the year, and this makes us fall back into our lazy selves again. We go for what is easy. Think about the banana. It seems that it’s availability to us whenever we want it also means that it is chosen over other fruits because it is easy to carry and virtually clean to eat. (No sticky fingers!)

Our trip to the store then means we buy the same fruit over and over again only giving our bodies one food group and causing us to become deficient in other nutrients. When you eat seasonally you eat a variety of foods as they become available and in turn nourish different parts of our body.

Market, food, surplus, stall, fresh, organic, honey, jam, homemade, Local Seasonal ProduceMarket Nosh came about with the desire to allow small allotment owners a platform to “share” their produce with us. A small vegetable patch means you have fresh food through some of the seasons and yet at certain times there is just too much or too little.

Idea to Create

This is where I saw Market Nosh fit. A place to offer either for sale, exchange or for donation, fresh produce from around our local areas. It is obvious and self defeating that we would travel a hundred miles to buy a bag of potatoes that someone had left over, but there may be someone else around the corner from you who just has too many turnips this year and is wanting to swap for whatever you have.

Some people are just happy to see their produce go to good use, other donate to food kitchens, whatever the need there is equally others who can meet it. This is all before we include fresh local seasonal foods from our local area brought to a Farmers Market. The meeting places where we have a chance to eat fresh and meet others.

Then there are the food stalls attached to local farms and Pick Your Own. All offering valuable fresh foods for us to live our lives well.

Market Nosh is Born

Market, food, surplus, stall, fresh, organic, honey, jam, homemade, Local Seasonal ProduceCreating a platform to share our food wherever we might be, and equally allow others to contribute to these places so we can meet up.

I have some great ideas to take Market Nosh further and while it is still in it infancy, it should go some way for us to use our food efficiently. Eating local food in season and giving our bodies the nutrients we need throughout the year.

Welcome to Market Nosh, share, sell, find and discover your local food from farm or allotment straight to your plate!

You can download the app from the App Store or Play Store to see your local markets and if your one is not there, post it.

Similar Posts