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!

Most 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 parts of the world 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 have seen.

The items that most concerned me were the fruits, vegetables, milk, meat and eggs. The staples of our food diet. Some fruits seem to be in season all year long, 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 only to be discarded at the end of the day.

The moment everything came together for me was noticing that the year often offered a bounty at harvesting times. Spinach can be grown and plucked when required, Rhubarb can be picked, cooked and preserved in jams or put in pies, and we have learned to look after grains we need to store them in silos for the colder 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 and hold a lot of the starches required for our bodies. Leaving an apple in storage seems to reduce its effectiveness in retaining valuable vitamins and minerals. It may appear to look fresh after many months but it is of little nutritional value.

So here lies our problem. We cannot keep fresh food indefinitely and we cannot store most foods without some nutritional cost disadvantage.

Seasonal

There is also the point about seasonal eating. To enhance our cooking styles we are offered a variety of ingredients from around the world every day of the year. We go for what is easy. Like the banana which seems to be available all year round, meaning we chose that instead of other seasonal food from our local area.

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 bodies.

Market Nosh came about with the desire to highlight all that fresh food we have on offer that is local and seasonal. Grown to match the season and feed our bodies with the required minerals and vitamins we need to live.

When it’s cold it makes sense to have food that warm you up and when it’s hot to have cooling foods. Nature knew what she was doing and so the Market place is ideal to make the most of these opportunities.

Market Nosh is Born

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.