"I won't get mushrooms today at the (Saturday) farmers market. I'll just wait for the market on Tuesday."
You try to buy at just the right time to get the freshest possible produce and not to have too much in your kitchen. Sometimes, you can overthink the process.
I really did want to stop by the Tuesday market, the final market downtown where I live. So I pushed off the mushrooms to Tuesday.
Well, the winds from the after effect of Hurricane Sandy brought the local farmers markets down for Tuesday. One vendor made it out to the downtown market. One. No, the mushroom people didn't make it on Tuesday.
"Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today." -- Thomas Jefferson
In summertime, you have much more of an error margin. If you miss a Tuesday market, Wednesday and Thursdays have their own markets. Where I live, Monday and Friday are the only days where I don't know of a market.
I ran out of mushrooms before tomorrow's market, having to buy mushrooms at the grocery store. A decent substitution, but not as wonderful as the fresh produce from the farmers market.
You don't know a hurricane from a 1,000 miles away is going to affect a trip to the farmers market. But a thunderstorm could, or simple rain, or you get an emergency at work, or you sprain your ankle before the next market and can't get there.
Grocery stores are open year-round every day. You can even find some stores open on Christmas Day. Farmers markets come quite often when the weather is warm, occasionally when the weather is cold.
Farmers markets purchases have to be treated as special, especially when the weather isn't special. If you have to ask yourself whether you need to buy something at a farmers market, go ahead and buy that food.
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