We all know that almost all foods available to us are processed and contain additives and preservatives. Beef is filled with hormones and antibiotics. Fruit is genetically-modified and sometimes waxed in order to look appealing to the customer. Growing and raising food like this leaves a huge price on the environment. Thankfully, there are foods you can buy that do not include any of these practices. You may have seen organic food in specialized markets or rarely in supermarkets, or not at all. If you haven’t, you might want to visit the Union Square Greenmarket right outside the 14th Street Union Square station.
What you experience once you climb up the stairs into street view is an organized commotion. There are people walking around with plastic bags filled with recently-purchased items and vendors under tents yelling out orders. As you walk by, some try to persuade you to by their items. Tents have signs on them with the name of a farm or company and what they sold. You could find a tent that sold almost anything; there were jars of misty honey, apples that weren’t shiny or smooth, and pickled vegetables. A certain tent that sold yarn had lamb and sheep skin hung on the sides of it.
I got the chance to talk to a woman from the Rockhill Bakehouse tent. They sell organic muffins and baked goods. “Everything they sell here has to be organic,” she told me. “The muffins we have here are made from grass-fed cows. We grew these blueberries ourselves, too. We have a farm upstate and drive three hours every Saturday.” Everything sold in this market has to be organic and locally grown.
If you’re interested in going to one of these farmer’s markets, they happen every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.. Also, if you’d like to know more about this market or other activities GrowNYC is having, check out their website www.grownyc.org.
