Ten days after the coldest day in southwest Florida's history, the farmers' market opened. All the usual items were on sale but because of the frost damage there were some quality loss. The farmers were talking to their customers and explaining that the damage was not dangerous or inedible, only a little less attractive.
It was interesting to hear the exchanges between the farmers and customers. Numerous questions beginning with, "what do I do with my" ...."which was frost damaged". Time was taken and excellent advice shared by all who asked. People bought the corn with tips damaged, tomatoes with tiny black spots and peppers slightly wilted. It was the people who were saying keep up the good work and we support you.
In many cases the prices were lowered to make up for the lack of quality in the produce - we never cared. We wished to keep this market viable and we empathized with our farmers. This tragedy was a natural occurrence and nobody lost their life, only their living for a time.A couple of hundred miles to the south there was a human tragedy of mammoth proportions and the result was the loss of so many people,s lives. So when we look at our situation it fails to even register in comparison to Haiti.
World events make us realize that we are people of the planet and everyone is impacted when some of us experience pain and suffering. We hope there will be lessons learned from the Haiti earthquake and we will plan for situations in a more constructive way. No blame can be cast but everyone realized the lack of co-ordination and leadership caused many needless deaths. In our world with climate change about to cause many huge destructive situations we need a world plan to provide aid to the victims.
I caught up on your last one too. I should have been in that class, to learn a few things to keep me blogging in peace.
ReplyDeleteYour farmer's market is back on track? What a treat!