I heard the news on the radio this morning: "farmers are selling their products to Parisians on an improvised market on Place de la Bastille". I went there, thinking this was definitely photo worthy. And apparently I was not the only one to hear the news on the radio! There were several hundreds of people waiting in line to buy fruit and vegetables at a supposedly better price. In fact, I did not really see the difference (actually melons are even presently less expensive in the shop around the corner than there - 1,65 € against 2 €...)
Sometimes just being in the fresh air makes buying something so much more fun, then in the shop around the corner.
ReplyDeleteC'est étrange comme idée...quel était le but?
ReplyDeleteLot of people, even journalists. Expecially you, Eric!
The colors don't look Parisian. It looks more like an outdoor market in Southern or Napa California. I did a double take because it looks Latino.
ReplyDeleteJournalists have to eat, i guess, Guille...! Busy shot, Eric. Like it.
ReplyDeleteI thought perhaps you were in Spain! I do love a good farmer's market, but the prices do seem to be equivalent or even higher than the stores. I don't get to them often, they are held here on Fridays and by that time I've been to town so many times during the week, I just want to stay home!!
ReplyDeleteBut oh, a good homegrown lettuce!
Why did they all show up there? Was that some kind of a protest? and more importantly, how much were the tomatoes?! :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a Farmers Market here in town every Saturday and Sunday. It's fantastic - live music, locally grown vegetables, fruit, herbs, meat, honey, and wool, and more. A friend of mine even makes and sells authentic El Salvador food at her own booth.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a new Daily Market Cooperative that allows members ($150 initially, $10 each year following - all completely refundable if you wish to cease membership) to purchase locally grown produce, supporting our local growers and boosting our local economy.
Produce markets are great. Glad to see Paris is on the band wagon!
Over here (USA) usually produce sold at Fresh Markets like that are MORE expensive - they're more desirable because they are fresher, organic, and local. Why were the farmers doing that, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteAmen to Becky and M.K. Better to give the farmer the profit than see him ripped off by multi-national agro-corporations who pressure the grower with their dominant position. "Either we buy it at our price, or nobody buys it, sucker!" says Big Broker. The people are saying, "Let us buy it. Don't alter your crops genetically for shipping toughness and unnatural shelf life. Give us your real food, from your own hand."
ReplyDelete...uselaine really, really needs to shut up once in a while...
Ah, fresh fruit and vegetables! Looks lovely, Eric. We've the farmer's market every Saturday morning in our burg. What's that old joke about God inventing vegetables so that women could finally get even with their children. ;-) So true! (especially the broccoli and the...broccoli) And then there's the watermelon--someone once said of it you eat, you drink, you wash your face(often all at the same time). BTW...have you seen the cube variety they grow in Japan. Yeah, it doesn't roll off your countertops or your refrigerator shelf. No joke! Suddenly I'm hungry! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteUS Elaine...I hope you'll continue to comment. I think you have more kindred spirits than you might realize. I promise not to shout out my grievances against a particular banana company (Chiquita)that destroyed Guatemala and other Latin nations and a certain country's CIA that didn't help matters either. So, yes, it's nice to know where one's produce comes from.
ReplyDeleteLe but? I would say it's as USElaine says, to eliminate the middle-man and put the profit into the hands of the farmers.
ReplyDeleteHere in the states it's as Elaine says, farmers are often forced to sell at a price dictated to them, which doesn't necessarily cover their costs. So many small farms are failing. If they can come directly to the buyers, then they can grow the food as it should be grown (organically or at least under improved conditions).
Often I pay higher prices at the farmer's market. (Not always.) I always get better food than I can buy at my local chain grocery store. I know of one chain in soCal that buys directly from farmers (email me if you want to know which one). Others generally buy from middlemen, raising the prices even higher.
uselaine -- amen!
ReplyDeleteYou all need to move to Brooklyn (oh, would you please) and join the Park Slope Food Coop (in my quartier)! You do have to work a 2- to 3-hour shift at the store every 4 weeks, but in return you get fabulous organic food at EXTREMELY affordable prices. There's also have a farmers' market near me every Saturday—this photo reminds me a bit of that.
So, Eric, did you buy anything while you were there? D'habitude, where do you fait du shopping?
Delete that stray "have" please. Merci bien.
ReplyDeleteJeez. I get so serious sometimes. Alexa, that sounds like fun! Or work. Fun work.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind paying a higher prices at {the farmer's market}. if the quality is there. Prices are high everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAlexa, there's a fantastic food co-op in Sacramento that I used to belong to, with the same membership/work arrangement. Nowadays, I get a mixed half bushel basket of whatever my farmer is harvesting this week.
ReplyDeleteA sample from May and what the delivery baskets looked like in Spring (they're fuller now).
Two euro for a MELON?? Well...I guess that isn't too bad, but how big is it and what kind of a melon is it?? Local produce grown in France, or imported???
ReplyDeleteOh forget it..I'll just buy chocolate. I don't care how much that costs, especially when I'm craving it! LOL!!!
Man, people sure are cheek by jowl here to get some produce! Plus that's a pretty big camera; this must have been big news. Aren't there markets all over Paris on a regular basis, or do those close down in August too?
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky that there are so many great farmers' markets in the SF area, but on Saturday I was standing in my mom's garden eating the most delicious tomato right off the vine. Plus I brought home a chocolate pepper, a melon, zucchini and tons of tomatoes. I wish I lived closer to her so I could raid her garden more often!
Eric, is that a film crew's camera? And, Katie,
ReplyDeletePlease 'splain to me what a chocolate pepper might be. Tomatoes off the vine sound so good right now. Just seeing them in the boxes here, Eric, has me hungry for one of my family's summer traditions. . .a tomato sandwich. Sounds weird, I'm sure, but very tasty. My uncle used to send my parents a carefully packed box of his huge backyard garden tomatoes in the summer because they lived in the desert and good produce there was hit or miss. In fact, we had many a large family summer gathering at his place on the east coast where the menu consisted strictly of white "Silver Queen" corn from the Amish farm stands, fresh steamed clams from from the coast, and sliced tomatoes from the garden.
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
I just read a post with Farmer's Market pictures in Maine over at the Time Goes By blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timegoesby.net/
She mentioned buying cherentais melons and said she had them in France 20 years ago.
This all makes me feel like making a fruit salad - at midnight!
Tomate - that was funny! Yes Eric, how much were the tomatoes?
ReplyDeleteTonton_flaneur said, "Two euro for a MELON?? Well...I guess that isn't too bad, but how big is it and what kind of a melon is it??"
In fact, in France, what we call a "cantaloupe" in the U.S. is what the French call a "melon". They originated in India and Africa. I still can't remember what they call a "honeydew melon" but think it's something like "Antibes blanche" and it originates from France. A "watermelon" is called a "pastèque"...
Time Goes By said that cherentais melons sold for $10 when she lived in Manhattan, which is why she was thrilled to find them in Maine where she now lives. In N.Nevada, where I was raised,residents looked forward each year to the "Heart of Gold" cantaloupes grown in Fallon, NV. All these years later there is speculation that the cause of the mysterious "cancer cluster" found in Fallonites might have something to do with the USAF base dumping its fuel over the area. Now I wonder about those beautiful cantaloupes...
ReplyDeleteYes, Guille, the whole purpose of this "demonstration" was to attract the attention on the costs of the middle-man like USElaine and Petrea pointed it.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it was a big communications strategy organized by the PCF (French Communist Party) and a farmers' union (Modef).
The actual purpose was not to sell good products at a cheap price to greedy Parisians(!) but to attract the medias' attention. And as several of you noticed it worked! There were many cameras and microphones (see this little video clip)there (even a photographer from PDP, imagine!)
When I was in Paris in January with friends, we stayed near Place de la Bastille. We bought produce, chicken and fish for our meals,as well as scarves, gloves, what-have-you at a regular street market there every Sunday and Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIs this today's market something different?
In July at the marché in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, I paid 3.72€ for a Cavaillon melon. That was pretty darned pricey (too touristy there, I guess), but it was so-o-o good! I'm paying $3.99 for a Tuscan melon here at home. Ah, the good old days of 50-cent melons.
Lee in California
The message I wrote this morning about the reasons of this sale didn't show up, strange !
ReplyDeleteMysteries of technology !
I had tried, in other words than Eric, and without any politic intention, to explain that this union of family-owned small companies wanted to expose their point about the margins taken by the mass marketing
As an example, to inform Tomate about the prices of tomatoes, price paid to producers is around 0.6 € per kilo and price asked to the final customer is between 2.5 € and 3.5 €. Information found on the union website.
As seen on the video, they did attract some attention.
uselaine -- I love how you get your produce! Good for the farmer, and a surprise package for you to discover and enjoy. (And you don't have to decide what to get—another bonus.)
ReplyDeletemichael -- your melon vocab lesson (merci) reminds me of when we were in Greece when the kids were little. They were surprised that the women were all topless on the beach, and amused themselves by categorizing all the bare breasts as either "peponi" (cantaloupes) or "karpouzi" (watermelons).
forgot to say -- congrats to GF gramma ann!
ReplyDeleteLee in California: good point. It's useful to increase awareness. I wonder if there's a further difference?
ReplyDeleteAlexa...LOL!!! Hey, but were they fresh? (the melons that is) BIDDA BOOM! ;-)
ReplyDeleteOkay Eric, I wondered what was the point if the prices were not cheaper, I understand now. Nice explainations from Petrea and Elaine.
ReplyDeleteAlexa LOOOL your kids are priceless. I hope they didn't speak too loud.
Michael, I learnt at least one word today: cantaloupe! Your honeydew melon is simply...our melon blanc. I'm not fan of it. Too tasteless.
Lee in California, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue! Nice place! I love this part of Provence.
I would pay anything in America to have my fruits and vegetables taste as sweet as they do in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI love farmer's markets and don't mind paying extra for a fresher product grown locally.
ReplyDeleteAlexa: I'm sorry for getting GF, I think it should go to Guille. I didn't mean to be first, I was sure someone else would be first. And anyway it is only one sentence, not two...
ReplyDeleteMmmmm...I really need to get around to visiting the local one that goes on every Wednesday. Then I need to get to the better one only a few miles away. I love farmer's markets!
ReplyDeleteThe difference was certainly that the farmers got more money for their production with the same end price..
ReplyDeleteTomorow I'll go to the market too, not this one though
Gramma ann, Come on! You deserved it! You wrote two full lines about the subject. How is it possible to be sorry for being GF!LOL.
ReplyDeleteI'm bowing. I didn't deserved it (pour une fois). ;)
Guille: Thank you, I accept;) But I still wasn't trying to be first. Being it's Olympics week, lets just say I won by .oooo1 second.
ReplyDelete0,00001s ,it's okay to me. This way, it is not a bitter failure! Actually, I was trying to be GF. I'm not ashamed to say that. ;)
ReplyDeleteGuille: I guess I'll string a few leaves of lettuce around the crown;))
ReplyDeleteOr laurel, ala the Greek Olympics?
ReplyDeleteI was quietly looking at the episode 19th of "How I met your Mother", season 3...when suddenly, PETREA appeared to my eyes!! My heart exploded. Almost. I mean I'm enough alive to write it but... :)
ReplyDeleteWhaaaaa....
Am I right Petrea? I didn't dream, did I?!
Michael...have you ever had "Melon Soup"???? Ohhh..la la la!! Very nice!
ReplyDeleteIs that anything like Memphis Soul Stew?
ReplyDeleteGuille - Petrea and her screen credit. (You'll have to take my word for it. I don't have TV, so I went to Launderland to see it when it broadcast.
ReplyDeleteJeff, Memphis soul is more my speed. I'm not a big fan of honeydew. Canteloupe definitely! and Canteloupe Island, most definitely!
ReplyDeleteUselaine, you went to a laundry to...LOL what an adventure! That's exactly the part I saw!
ReplyDelete*...Soul
ReplyDeleteJeff...Jerry J and Bernard Purdie (helluva rhythm section...dig the bass)! and then there's the King on sax! Nice soul food here.
Ooh, Guille, it plays in Paris??????? I'm thrilled!! Was I speaking French? Did I have a sexy French voice?
ReplyDeletePetrea -- Guille will tell us, but moi, j'en suis sure!
ReplyDeleteLOL Petrea! I'm sure what I've heard of your own voice is much better than anything dubbed over here! Guille, I hope you taped it for us so we can see it?
ReplyDelete