Deeply passionate about local foods and sustainable agriculture, my husband and I put real blood, real sweat and real tears into our farmers market: waking up at the crack of dawn, putting in 14-hour days, conducting food preservation demonstrations, driving across Colorado to connect with small-time, sustainable growers and working tirelessly with local and state bureaucracies. You can see, in the above image, just how much we’ve worked to develop and grow our market.
In short, it’s a lot of work. That’s why I was so dismayed, but not surprised, to read a less than heart-warming opinion of farmers markets in the recently published book Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong. Indeed, its author goes so far as to say that, given a blind taste-test, consumers would not be able to differentiate between an heirloom tomato purchased at a farmers market and a conventional tomato purchased at a grocery store. Could all those thousands of hours we put into growing our foodshed be in vain?
Now, to me, it seems like a no-brainer. Why, of course farm fresh food tastes better. It’s not the atmosphere of the market that makes the food seem to taste better, the food really does taste better. But anecdote and opinion aren’t data, are they?
So, in my oh-so-unscientific survey, I gathered farm fresh, organic tomatoes, plums, peaches, apples and carrots from the sustainable growers at our farmers market and paired them against conventionally grown tomatoes, plums, peaches, apples and carrots straight from the local grocery store. As shoppers strolled by our farmers market information booth, I invited them to give a shot at our great farmers market taste-off.
Each blindfolded or closed-eyed shopper was given a two pieces of fruit or vegetable of the same variety: one organic and fresh from the market stalls and one conventionally grown and purchased at the grocery store that morning. Then we asked them to identify the best-tasting peach, plum, carrot, tomato, green bean or apple.
The Results of the Great Farmers Market Taste-off
Blinded shoppers taste-tested large tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, plums, peaches, apples, green beans and carrots. And everyone enjoyed a hella good time.
| Product | Shoppers Preferring Sustainable & Market Fresh by Taste Alone | Shoppers Preferring Conventional & Store-bought by Taste Alone |
| Tomatoes | 96% | 4% |
| Cherry Tomatoes | 98% | 2% |
| Plums | 94% | 6% |
| Peaches | 93% | 7% |
| Apples | 98% | 2% |
| Carrots | 95% | 5% |
| Green Beans | 100% | 0% |
| Average | 96% | 4% |
The Comments
Of course, listening to the comments and watching shoppers expressions as they tasted the difference between store-bought and farm-fresh produce. I know we made more than a few converts on the days we conducted the taste testing.
- Eeew! The skins are so thick and sour. (referring to conventional cherry tomatoes)
- These are so sweet they just pop in your mouth. (referring to farm fresh cherry tomatoes)
- While not as sweet, the market plums have more flavor. (referring to farm fresh plums)
- These taste all chemically and watery! (referring to conventional carrots)
- This peach is like mush and has no flavor. (referring to conventional peaches)
- These beans are actually sweet and tender! (referring to farm fresh green beans)
- I need a chaser to get that flavor out of my mouth. (referring to conventional carrots)
- The market apples are so crisp and juicy but the store-bought are so mealy.
- Where can I buy these!?! (several customers, referring to several farm fresh fruits and vegetables)
So, there we have it: real food does taste better. One of the major reasons behind this taste differential is simple and intuitive: farm fresh, sustainable food is nurtured by growers and picked at the peak of ripeness and is delivered to shoppers within a matter of a few days at most. Conventional produce, on the other hand, is picked unripe then ripened through ethylene gas and shipped before it reaches the table the result is loss of nutrients and considerable loss of flavor. Keep your food fresh, local and farmer-direct.
While I happen to agree that it tastes better, I’m sure that’s not the only reason people are willing to go to farmer’s markets. Personally, I go to the farmer’s market for those reasons far more than for the taste. While I do taste the difference, the other five members of my family don’t, so I wouldn’t go to any lengths for that reason.
I’d be willing to guess that more people shop there because of their belief systems. Perhaps they feel that locally grown is better for the environment, or they want organic produce, or maybe they want to support local businesses. Maybe all three.
So, in the end, I think you’re doing a great thing for your community and would believe that even if it tasted exactly the same.
Jenny, this is great! Coming from a midwestern state, most of the produce in grocery stores comes from around the nation and world. There is a huge notable difference in taste when you compare grocery store produce to our local farmers market and definitely from my own gardens. What a cool idea!!
Congrats to you and your family on a job well done. I so enjoyed shopping at your Farmer’s Market this summer during my visits to your town. Thank you for your committment to locally grown sustainable food.
My neighbor had never tried a tree ripened peach, so I bought her some from the local peach stand. She did a blind taste-off with her husband and two young kids. There was such a taste difference that no one in her family would finish off the store bought peaches. Now the kids ask for the “peaches they like” vs “the yucky ones”.
That book is rediculous.
Love it!
And those results extend to the farm-raised meat, too. I used to give out freshly cooked samples of our ground beef. There is as much difference in taste as there is between tomatoes.
I suspect most of my customers buy our meat the first time for “feel-good” or health reasons, but they keep coming back because it the taste is so good.
That book is so off the mark. Do they really think that conventional tomatoes taste the same as farmer’s market tomatoes? Or tomatoes you grow yourself in your own yard? Pleezze. There is no comparison!
Even things you wouldn’t think would taste different, like turnips, cabbage, cucumbers…those taste so much better from the farmer’s market than the supermarket.
Jenny,
Keep up the great work!
I wish our government would subsidize local farmers instead of all the big agri-businesses because people are not aware that local organic farmers are scrutinized more than the big companies.
And, what do we see every day? Our mass food supply is making us sick!
Dianne
Jenny, you are a marvel. I love your commitment to local food sources. What you do for your community really is something to be proud of.
I agree with the first commentor, I think many people are loyal to farmers markets, not just for the taste (which IS better) but because they want to support the local businesses and economy. So no matter what the reason, or reasons, why people go, people go and are passionate about it.
I also agree that grassfed beef tastes so much better than the conventional stuff. I have turned a lot of people onto it, because it is so delicious.
Ditto Sara’s comment about meats! We usually buy our fish from a fellow at the farmer’s market who fishes in the morning, then brings that day’s catch to market. We don’t even bother with fish from the store anymore; it just doesn’t taste good compared to the fresh stuff!
I always love reading this blog but you’ve outdone yourself. What an important issue, and what a simple solution — actually test out the thesis that people can’t tell the difference between farm-fresh food and conventional stuff trucked in from another state. I shop at my local farmers market every Wednesday, and it’s a small affair, not a carnival, and I don’t eat the produce on site, I take it home and eat it and marvel at the quality and flavor. Other than the farmers market and what I grow myself, I have two other options: the local grocer (I stay away from Safeway) or a natural foods co-op in a neighboring village. There is a difference in quality between the two that we have noticed over and over. The local grocer is good for berries, but vegetables are very often old and overpriced. The food co-op has fresh, high-quality food, often from the same folks I buy from at the farmers market. If you cook and eat real food, it doesn’t take too long to develop a taste for fresh, carefully grown food.
Another advantage to farmers markets that Michael Pollan has pointed out is that people engage in many more conversations than at a grocery store. I know that is true for me. I’ve learned about honey from the beekeeper, goats from the chevre purveyor, and farmers market politics from the biodynamic grower that has the best lettuce mix and eggs. The beef lady teaches me about different cuts, and the crab-cake guy told me where he gets his crab in the off-season. At the grocery store, I exchange pleasantries with the check-out clerk, and occasionally with the butcher when I ask for chicken necks and backs for my homemade stock. That’s it. On most trips to the grocery store, I might as well be alone in the store for all the human contact. At the farmers market, I’m always warmly received and questions are knowledgeably answered.
Thanks again!
Sara -
I completely agree about the beef – and any animal product really – the flavor is so strikingly better when it comes to grass-finished beef or pasture-raised pork and poultry. The other stuff is virtually flavorless by comparison I think. You raise a good point, I think: originally, I embarked on traditional foods because I felt they were healthier but the fact that the food just tastes and feels so darn good keeps me coming back again and again.
- Jenny
What a great idea! I think it’s fantastic that you guys did this at your market. And, you’re absolutely right – farm fresh food does taste best. I find it particularly appalling that the book called out conventional tomatoes as being just as good. Tomatoes might be the most remarkable difference of all! It’s virtually impossible to find passable store tomatoes, while many other vegetables are acceptable.
Wait a minute, somebody actually wrote a book opposing the local foods movement?? What?? That just seems bizarre. Really mind boggling that a person would even claim grocery store tomatoes are the same as home grown… anybody with a tomato growing grandparent knew by the age of two that grandma’s tasted a million times better. What a ridiculous, outrageous stance. Good for you for crafting a productive response to the author’s drivel.
I agree with Sandra and Jenn, and I like JeanMarie’s second point too. Having a particularly strong farmer’s market in Columbia Missouri (http://www.columbiafarmersmarket.org/), we also enjoy entertainment like local musicians, kite experts, and so forth.
It would help strengthen your case, I suspect, if you could give us a sense of how many people participated in your experiment. We’re already believers, of course, but when relaying this anecdote, it would be great if we could specify the numbers, whether two dozen or two hundred.
Cheers, and keep up the great writing!
I agree with Sandra that even if the produce tasted exactly the same, there are social and environmental issues involved with farmer’s markets that would induce me to prefer them over, say, Kroger.
1. More money goes into the grower’s pocket. Part of the cause of decline among family-owned small farms has been the razor-thin profit margin.
2. Less transportation time is involved. As you and others have pointed out, that means better ripening and greater freshness, not to mention the lesser amount of fossil fuel consumed.
and finally…
3. A community that can feed itself has a much greater amount of freedom than one which cannot. I regularly correspond with people who like to philosophize about where our modern world has gone wrong. Most of us have decided that one of the major problems is that the food’s locked up. A community having to import its food in order to avoid starvation is just another way that the food’s locked up. Local food is freer food, and much greater security against economic slavery, among other kinds.
Taste is a pretty minor factor compared to all those.
I am not surprised by the results of your taste test. I find it hard to believe that anyone can argue food picked three weeks and shipped from who knows where tastes better than something freshly picked! Even my teenage son can tell the difference. When I go to the store he always tells me to get the “good eggs and milk” (from local pastured animals rather than conventional). I can’t eat much of store bought anything anymore after fresh local foods and gardening.
What a nice initiative. I realy hope that people are converted and are willing to pay the extra price and put in the extra time to cook a real meal. Luck with your actions, Margo
Anyone who can’t taste the difference between a farm or garden ripened tomato & a grocery store tomato must have broken tastebuds! I wish our government wouldn’t subsidize ANY farmers! Not with direct money or with biased laws. They’re not constitutionally supposed to, anyway, so let’s have a level playing field & let the people decide!