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At the grocery store, it’s easy to think you’re looking at the full range of what exists in the world. The produce displays remain mostly constant, although there is an uptick in citrus during the winter and apples during the fall. At the farmer’s market, every week is different – sometimes dramatically so.
It’s not that we can’t go to the grocery store and exclaim there, too, about the diversity of creation. But there is something about seeing just how many things grow around you, tended by hands you now have the opportunity to shake. Honoring all of that biodiversity can be an act of worshipping our Creator God.
This season, make the farmer’s market a spiritual practice. Or prepare a small space or container where you might plant seeds indoors or outdoors next year. If you visit a market, be open to foods and growing and cooking advice from people who know this food best. Chatting with the people who grow the food on my table – and tasting something new or in season at its peak – has nourished me in more than one way.
This message is excerpted from “At the farmer’s market” by Cara Strickland in the July/August 2020 Gather magazine.