Living Local in the City

After lamenting over high-priced, imported tomatoes at Whole Foods (see Animal Vegetable Miracle post), I took the day off yesterday to check out Reading Terminal Market. Iovine's Produce stand offers a lot of organic produce, but not one sign tells you where the veggies originated, in fact a sign saying "produce from all over the world", sent a shiver down my spine.
I remembered the Fair Food Farmstand, in the North-East corner of the market, and decided to press my luck and see what I could turn up.
I was surprised to even find them open, because in the past, when I've visited on a weekday, they are often closed by the time I make the trek. I was expecting crates and crates of potatoes, which they surely had, but they also had a lot of other great items that I didn't imagine to find.
Yesterday, the Fair Food Farmstand was stocked with everything I could possible want to make a delicious dinner. Albeit a bit more expensive, the local purple kale blows conventional kale out of the water. Tomatoes, you got 'em and heirloom varieties too! Lettuce, yep, an oak leaf lettuce fresh from a farm. Mushrooms, many varieties, a rainbow offering of squash, peppers, radishes, Brussels sprouts, cranberries, apples. I've already started lining up my produce picks for a very raw Thanksgiving meal, and the Fair Food Farmstand has pretty much everything I could want. Every item here is local and organic, from small farms all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Each item has a little sign so you know exactly what you are getting. Is it more expensive? Well, maybe. I spent 13 dollars on three very necessary items, kabocha squash, purple kale and some awesome-looking spinach. Then I went to Iovine's and spent the same amount on 4 other organic items. Maybe eating local does cost slightly more, but remember you are helping the small farming industry and not some stupid conglomerate who has no clue about tasty food.
So, just when I thought the going for local produce was getting tough, the Fair Food Farmstand saved the day. Check out your local city market for a similar stand, if it doesn't exist, press for it by contacting local farmers and co-ops into making it happen for your locality.