Here’s a fun hint if you find you missed the Farmer’s Market this week and would like to know what produce might be from local suppliers.

I just found this out from the Produce manager at Woodmans West, my “local” supermarket:  Explaining to me that it would be really difficult to put signs up telling us what produce might be from a local farm – the main reason being that this week lettuce be local, next week it might have come from California (because nearby farms didn’t have enough supply) – but, he said, you can tell what we’ve bought from local farms:

Look for the banana boxes!

Local farmers use old banana boxes (supplied by Woodmans) to pack their produce in.  So if there are tomatoes in a banana box, they’re local.  If they are in a tomato box, probably not.

Your store might be different – so the general priniciple could be, If the box doesn’t match the contents, rejoice!  You are probably buying from a small local supplier.

Hope this helps.  Let me know!

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