To Produce Produce

In my Junior year, I took a course called Food and Writing, which was all about the processes food is made and the way those processes are conveyed and evaluated. The main focus was on Food Security and the importance of buying local and getting the best products. We did a project that focused on raising awareness about a program devoted to providing low-income families with locally grown produce at a cheaper price than Wal-Mart and The Great Canadian Superstore. I really liked the professor and his philosophy towards both writing and food and continue to do my best to emulate him. Food's quality is hinged on its freshness and I've grown up with that ideology, carrying it along as best I can through my travels.

As a kid, I always grew up with a vegetable garden, and my mother has continued to broaden her horizons with herbs and veggies. Coming home from university or abroad for the summer was always refreshing. I always liked barbequing in the backyard picking at parsley while I waited to flip whatever was on the 'cue. When I lived in Korea I always did my best to buy local produce from the markets around my apartment and school. Obviously, I didn't get everything I wanted all the time (I was always giddy when Asian pears showed up) but you make due, it's the closest thing to living off the land when you live in a big city and/or don't have a green thumb. In Doha, there wasn't a lot of local stuff: sometimes spinach or dill but other than that everything came from somewhere off of the Arabian Peninsula. I did my best to buy KSA products but there still wasn't a lot from there either.

Now here in Jordan, the farmer's market has opened up and although it's small it's got some great stuff. This is my second time going there and it continues to grow. This week they had strawberries! The farmer's market is the only place I've seen zucchinis too. So besides supporting farm-to-table, there are just certain things that are unique to the market. The atmosphere is very cool. It's set up in a park and each food-selling-human has their booth set up with a chalkboard over top stating where they're from. All the booths are local businesses of one kind or another, but I really just go for the produce.

Apart from buying strawberries I also picked up some kohlrabi (I googled what I can do with that), heirloom tomatoes, broad beans, a multigrain loaf, and kale.

Here are some photos:

Price isn't really a big deal for me but the loaf was 2JD, the bundle of kale was 1JD, the pint of broad beans was a half JD, the strawberries were 5JD (which is steep), and the heirlooms and zucchini were 3JD together. I don't think I'm saving heaps but it's the principle of cutting off the middleman.

While I prep all this goodness I watch this show called Chef's Table on Netflix. It's pretty awesome and inspiring if you like cooking. Everything's over the top because these are some of the best chef's in the world but it's just cool to listen to their ideas on food.