Local Flavors written by Deborah Madison is a very useful, informative, and charming cookbook. It shows you how you can make meals from food you buy at the farmer's market...this might seem like a 'no duh', but sometimes it's hard to know how to put everything together into something that will be yummy and nutritious. It's very good for teaching you about which veggies and fruits are in season when. Here's a couple of excerpts that I really enjoyed, one about how important farmer's markets are, and one about children's experiences at farmer's markets.
“When you think about it, the farmer’s market is really about the only place left in our lives where we can interact with someone who makes something we use. And it’s hard to imagine what is more vital or intimate than the food we consume, for it becomes our health, our pleasure, our nourishment, who we are, in fact. Today it is farmers who are providing the fragile connection that binds us in a meaningful way to our own humanity. In this sense, they are selling far more than tomatoes.
"You won’t find children nagging their mothers for candy and junk food…Children, those so-called recalcitrant consumers of vegetables, can become good eaters when they see the connection between the farmer and the food they eat. This is especially true if they have a chance to participate in some kind of farming experience, such as picking strawberries or gathering eggs at a farm stand, learning about honey at the market, visiting a farm or farmers’ market. They won’t know it, but they’re learning good eating habits by developing a taste for truly fresh, delicious food when they’re young, which will inform their food choices and affect their health over a lifetime."
