With the Farmers Market, I can get the next best thing to my own produce. With the Farmers Market, I can say at many a meal, “Except for the butter and salt, all the food in this meal is locally grown.”

There is a far greater aesthetic to this than the taste, texture and color; there is the story behind each food that shines in the faces of my neighbors who sold it to me. When I go to the Farmers Market, I don’t start with the most visible booths at the entrance. I swing quickly into the heart of the market on a hunt for what’s new or exotic – the first carrots of the season, that bag of young broccoli florets hidden behind all the spinach, the lion’s mane mushrooms, the new booth where young farmers are selling their produce for the first time.

I thank our local farmers market board for doing all the hard work to make this possible. Anything new I would like to see at the market? Well, how about parsnips, blueberries and Brussels sprouts for a start?

Gaby Chapman

Durango