We went to the market a few times during our vacation last year; once to the Marché des Enfants Rouges and we chanced on the Marché Bastille one morning and we went back twice.
The Marché Bastille is particularly spectacular; it’s a huge outdoor market with everything from a wide and interesting variety of fresh produce to cheap clothing.
I envied those French women and their baskets overflowing with fruits and vegetables.
The woman next door to the apartment we were renting told us she only bought produce from the market, and she went twice a week.
I thought about that a lot when I returned home, wondering what that was like – having access to local and seasonal produce, and not having to buy mealy tomatoes from the supermarket.
The irony here is, where I come from, people with money to waste buy produce from the supermarket.
It may not be a fancy Parisian market, but I love my local farmers’ market so much!
Every summer, for a few months I can easily get my hands on wholesome fruits and vegetables (and other amazing foodstuff) direct from the farm.
I have a profound respect for farmers; I come from a long generation of farmers, and I spent my first seven years on a farm.
Saturday mornings doesn’t feel quite right without a trip to my small farmers’ market.
Who knows what I might come away with?
I always contend that food from the farmers’ market tastes different, there’s a unique tastiness to it, and maybe it’s a mind thing but there’s something special about preparing a meal from ingredients you’ve carefully selected from the market where you met the actual farmers who grew your food.
Take this humble pasta with creamy pesto sauce for example… made with sweet cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions and basil, all from the market.
It’s a recipe I adapted from the Pioneer Woman’s pasta with pesto cream sauce.
I used coconut milk for a creamy flavourful alternative.
I wolfed down this pasta the night before my half-marathon, and it had just the right amount of scrumptiousness and carbs needed for that run.
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