Monday Dose of Market: Snow in the Great State of Colorado

We did manage to get out to the home improvement store and squeeze in  a stop at a grocery store with the words “farmers’ market” in the name.  Camera in gloved hand, I was ready to snap some pictures of Colorado-grown produce, encouraged by the sign at the front of the store.

 Local Product! From the Great State of Colorado! 

After ten minutes wandering among the produce displays, I saw a lot of produce “grown in the USA,” but none that called out Colorado specifically.  Surely a winter squash, greens, maybe some carrots, or stored potatoes or onions could be from Colorado.  I checked with a produce employee.  She confirmed.  “Sometimes we have melons, corn, apples and green beans from Colorado.  But the sign would say so.  We probably don’t have anything right now.” 

Really, I hadn’t expected to find local veggies in this store.  I’ve researched some local farms, and am ready to make a trip this week.  But the sign….  It got my hopes up.  I skulked through the parking lot, head down, on the way back to the car.  My husband offered his condolences, while the guy getting in the car adjacent to us glanced at me with a look that said “wonder what’s wrong with her?”

This trip to the store made me simultaneous appreciate locales that can feed themselves from the land immediately surrounding them, and those that feed themselves via access to a complex food and transportation system.   Could as many of us live in the Colorado Front Range if we relied on the land around us to nourish us?