However, this past Thursday was glorious, which was fortunate because it was market day in Ambert. By far, buying my produce at the market is one of my favorite things to do while I am here. The markets move around during the week to other small towns, but the one in Ambert is the best, as far as I am concerned.
Stalls line the narrow, curved streets leading to the town's unique round town hall, in the center of town. Vendors from all over the region sell their products. Over the past few years, more and more organic produce from small local farms are offered. Amidst the cheese, eggs, fruit and vegetables, one can find almost any bric-a-brac. Even parrots and hopelessly outdated clothing items.
And if that is not enough, one can purchase a 5 Euro chamber pot. It was the week's promotion at a local store along the market route.
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5 comments:
Market Day photo's are amazing. You just can't match the quality of goods brought to market by individual local producers with a modern American supermarket--not even Whole Foods could come close.
Maybe, as yet another Brooklyn supermarket bites the dust on Smith St, we can at least hope that long lost ways will make their way back into our American food distribution systems.
Could it be time for the pendulum to swing back to a bottom-up foods system, rather than the top-down system that left a legacy of factory foods that no longer support life? Yes there is always hope.
I do think the pendulum is swinging back in the US, but very slowly.
I keep on making the argument that we, as consumers, are partly to blame. When a French person buys a melon that has no taste, he or she will be sure to let the seller know the next time. In the US, we just keep our mouth shut and continue to consume tasteless produce.
We need to start returning strawberries and tomatoes when they don't taste like anything.
We aren't so bad here in Brooklyn. I have been shopping the farmers' markets for decades. I know their names, where their farms are and what they grow.
Every Sunday I go to the market next to the park between Court and Smith Street. And to the one on Fifth Ave. at Fourth Street. If you can't find food you love there, you have a problem.
We are not talking supermarkets here, the article is about a farm market in Ambert, not a supermaket.
And let's not forget the Park Slope Food Coop! But honestly, you cannot compare the Sunday market in Carroll Gardens with The Ambert market - it does not have the variety of product. We do not have the food tradition and history that France does. Also, I think that Sunday market is pricey. Katia, that picture of peaches (right!?) is a painting.
Those are apricots, but thank you for the compliment. It really is not hard to take bad pictures at the market. It all looks so damn fresh.
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