Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Farmers Market = lies...ALL LIES!

I have been consistently going to our local Camarillo Farmer's Market since my son Curren was 6 months old, (so for about 2 years now) and I began making him pureed fruits.  My husband and I grew most of his veggies in our garden but we picked up some squash here and there at FM.  Wanting the best for him each week I went through and hand picked all his pears, apples, peaches, avocados, nectarines, blue berries...etc.  I always bought from the "organic" vendors cause I didn't want this new source of food to be laced with pesticides and GMOed fruit.  Week after week I began to see the same vendors...strike up a convo, and I ended up always going to the same people (in the back on the right, an Asian couple) they had a huge selection and EVERYTHING was organic, or so I thought. I would always wonder how they grew such beautiful fruit with no spray or anything. I have such a hard time in my garden with snails, birds, slugs..and not using any spray. their stuff is plump and huge and each piece of fruit is always perfect. SO flash forward 2 years later, and each week I have gone to these people and buy their stuff for $2.00 a lb, which is a decent price but not dirt cheap. 

Then I read this article on CHOW.COM (my new fav website) Don't Get Suckered at Farmers Market

if you don't want to read it, here's the basics--

-Farmer's Markets are a huge booming business, numbers almost doubling across the U.S.

-People are lieing about where their produce is coming from

The article suggests this--

-Ask if the people working are the ones who are actually doing the farming

-Where they are from

-Do they offer a CSA

-What their harvest season is

-Make sure what they are selling is what's in season

Having being suspicious I started asking so the first week
Me: "all of your produce is organic right? No sprays or anything?"
Them:"oh yes everything we sell is organic"
great.

The next week I notice their GIANT ORGANIC SIGN is down, hmm thats weird, I asked about it, and they said they were up for rectification and couldn't post it until they were certified. ok...

The next week the GIANT ORGANIC SIGN is back up. I see them putting boxes of grapes out, coming out of cardboard stack ables that say California grapes and nothing about them being organic.  So I proceeded to ask
Me:"are you the farmers for this produce?"
Them: "no we are just hired to sell it"
Me: "is all of your stuff organic?"
Them: "oh yes, everything is grown organically"
Me: "ok perfect because my son is highly allergic to any sort of pesticides or spray and it could really cause him harm" (which he's not, BUT I HAD TO GET THE REAL SCOOP FOR ALL OF MY 17 DEDICATED BLOG READERS HAHA)
Them: "oh well most of our stuff is 75% organic"
Me: "what is that supposed to mean"
Them: " well some of our stuff does have spray"....rambles on about some BS as his forehead starts beading sweat
Me: "well that really pisses me off because I've been buying from you for 2 years under the impression your food doesn't contain any pesticides"
Them: "well it's just a little bit here and there"
Me: "WTF???"

Long story short, none of their stuff is organic, nor has it EVER been.

Pissed off I headed over to the "farmers market office" ( an easy up with 4 people under it and a cash register) and tell them everything I just told you, and they were like oh he was supposed to take that Organic Sign down he didn't pass certification. UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

sweet i've been feeding my kid this (*&%^ for 2 effing years.

So, since then I have found a few vendors that are the actual farmers, and know their stuff and checked them out and they are indeed, free of spray. So do your homework people if this is important to you.

Here's some babyfood pics for ya

Guess what happens if you put HOT PEARS in a food processor and fill it to the top? It blows up.

Curren's Garden

Curren enjoying his beets with a side of pesticide spray.

At least I knew his veggies were decent!



1 comment:

  1. LOVE this sarah! I always wonder the SAME thing! This sunday- farmers market in westlake...its on!

    ReplyDelete

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