Farmers Fruit

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Originally uploaded by taylorone.

This raw vegan salad, contains from left to right, chanterelle mushrooms, wild arugula, edible flowers, sprouts, salmonberries, and nori ricecake. All were produced in California, the ricecake and salmonberries were produced in the central valley, while all the other ingredients were grown in the Santa Monica Mountians organically. On your own for dressing.

If you are considering going to Vons, Ralphs, Jons, Bristol Farms, Trader Joes, Whole Foods or Safeway for produce, by all means, a farmers market close to your area will be a much healthier, cheaper, and simpler alternative that gets your money closer to family farms, cutting out the middlemen. However, the myth that it is too hard, or not practical to grow your own food is absurd. And myths purporting all the food at farmers markets are from the neighborhood or even the state may be unfounded. I frequently see food from Mexico, Fresno, and other regions at least 300 miles away. Often the food is gorwn with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides unless labeled otherwise. Major market chains like the ones mentioned earlier have much of their food shipped from even further away (up to 2000 miles), and use more chemicals and genetically modified crops than do farmers markets.