“Would you like to try our raw, gluten-free, vegan, no sugar added, no GMO granola?” I was asked this Summer at the Rosseau, Ontario farmers market.
Followed up with, “Gosh you’re probably wondering if there is anything in it other than air!”
Let’s help vendors at farmers markets become better sales people on behalf of healthy living. How about:
“Try this granola before you go another step! It is everything you asked for. It’s healthy and yummy too. It won’t flare your blood sugar or allergies. It’s loaded with fiber and taste at the same time, and it’s guilt free when it comes to chemicals and GMO’s.”
I guess that’s a big mouthful too but I’d go for that over doom and gloom.
The point is, consumers are ready to eat better, especially consumers who frequent open air markets. Dangling your gluten-free “air” in front of us is as easy as dangling candy in front of a toddler. Remember, you had us at “farmer’s market.” In fact, we actually look to you farmers to drive our healthy trends, sometimes even blindly.
As we head into week 4 of our VEHI PATH Summer Challenge (see our Facebook page), we’re all spending time thinking about what a healthy hot day looks like with family and friends. Farmers markets indulge us in cool crafts, local food samples and healthy eating with gusto simply not afforded other venues. Trends toward health are born here and made solid in society’s lexicon. The healthy aura at the market just makes you want to revel in good quality eats and clean living.
Wherever you are right now, close your eyes and imagine your favorite market. You can see great big beautiful carrot bunches, condensation sparkling off them in the sunlight like dimonds. You can taste the perfectly sweet strawberries and feel the pop of a sugar snap pea. You can smell the local, organic grass fed beef cooking on a BBQ and hear the down-home music piping in from a van or even live in the gazebo nearby. This year for me it was a fiddle band playing Irish jigs. It made me want to jig all around the square and buy, eat, buy.
There’s magic in a farmers market. Community, health, laughter, commerce, and a combined effort to make the world a better place. Even in a record-breaking heatwave, it’s cool under the banner of our small local farms and artisans. Honor it and buy some organic produce today!
See you on the PATH Ahead…