Page 39 - August Sun Rays_Flipbook

Your
Food,
Your
Farmers
Market

By Ginger Przybys

If it’s Tuesday, it must be farmers mar- PHOTO BY GINGER PRZYBYS
ket day in Sun City Texas. Beginning
around 5 a.m., vendors pack up their A wide array of freshly-harvested fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy are
vehicles and head toward the Social Cen- all available at the weekly Sun City Farmers Market. If you have questions, want
ter parking lot. By 9 a.m., their tents are a recommendation or would like to know more about your food, the farmer is
up, signs are out and merchandise is dis- right on hand to help you out.
played. Neither rain or sleet, nor swelter-
ing heat or bone-chilling cold can deter on their produce, giving them a fighting directly to the consumer freshly picked
these hardy souls from showing up every chance in today’s global economy. - no gassing to encourage ripening; no
week of the year. sitting in storage for weeks. Vegetables
Marketgoers are sometimes surprised are at their peak of flavor and nutrition.
From 9 a.m. to noon each Tuesday, pes- when they do not see certified “organic” In supermarkets, many of the vegetables
ticide-free produce, grass-feed beef, free- labels on everything at a farmers mar- are treated with pesticides, genetically
range chicken, fresh eggs from ducks, ket – a label which many small and inde- modified, irradiated and/or wax coated –
quail and chickens, Texas honey, olive oil, pendent farmers struggle to attain due to treatments intended to preserve produce
pecans, home-baked goodies, homemade the lengthy and expensive USDA organic as it travels an average of 1,500 miles
jams, sauces and salsas along with a va- certification process. Regardless, small from where it was grown just to get to
riety of many other products are available farmers embrace and adhere to organic your table. Shipping, whether by truck,
for purchase. Regardless the time of year, farming practices. For example, fruits are train or plane, uses large amounts of fos-
shoppers will find a wonderful selection allowed to ripen on the plant and brought
of locally grown and hand-made items.
ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
Getting the word out about the many com-
munity benefits of a farmers market is
the responsibility of Stephanie Nakano,
Marketing Director for the Georgetown
Farmers Market Association (GTFMA).
She says supporting farmers markets pro-
vides small farmers with a better return

38 | SUNRAYS AUGUST 2016