Vegetables and fruits from market gardens and berry growers, meat from local producers, baked goods, and locally-made ready-to-eat food products are all making their way to farmers markets.
Grains, pulses, and oilseed crops are ready or ripening in the fields.
It’s harvest time. And whether we’ve had a great or a not-so-great growing season, this is the time to reap the benefits of our labours.
Welcome to Respect’s fall Food pages: a few stories about food, and a few ads from local businesses that are eager to serve you. If you love to cook with fresh produce, or if you love sampling from local restaurants, cafés, and pubs, be sure to support our advertisers. Everybody wins when we shop local.
It’s harvest time—let’s eat!
Support your local farmers’ market
Shopping for groceries at the farmers’ market is increasingly becoming the spirit of our times. But what explains this recent infatuation with buying local? Perhaps it’s the desire to get back to our roots and to make healthy eating choices with natural, wholesome foods.
A more human approach
Buying food in public places where local merchants converge is a surefire way to receive personalized, friendly service reminiscent of the bustling trading posts of the past. Merchants that set up shop in farmers’ markets are proud to display the fruits of their labour, to discuss their farming methods and to answer all of your questions in order to meet your every need. Furthermore, these friendly labourers are often more than thrilled to provide free samples to further convince you of the quality of their crops.
The possibility to communicate directly with local farmers is an opportunity that modern, large-scale grocery chains cannot fulfill, as most of their offerings travel long distances before landing on store shelves.
Quality products
When you buy local, you’re guaranteed to be getting the freshest foods available. Withered vegetables or two-week-old eggs at a merchant’s stand? Unheard of! In addition, health fanatics that prioritize foods that are certified organic or produced without preservatives, artificial colours, antibiotics and growth hormones can certainly fill their reusable bags with everything their heart desires at their neighbourhood market.
This fall, take a break from the supermarket and swing by your local farmers’ market instead — delicious discoveries and inspiring encounters with friendly farmers await!
Cafés and pubs are important to your town’s food scene
Coffee shops and lunch counters will always have their place. And sometimes the plain old-fashioned boozer is perfectly good
for an after-work beer or watching the game with friends.
But cafés and pubs are joining the coffee shops and bars as neighbourhood meeting places, and they
can offer a refreshing alternative.
Relax and enjoy
If you’re unfamiliar with the world of baristas serving elaborate coffee concoctions, you don’t have to worry. Any good café will serve you what you want—even a plain cup of coffee.
The unspoken rule of café culture is friendliness with no snobbery—there’s a lot of ways to enjoy a coffee or a cup of tea. The aim is to make the customer feel welcome, in an inviting atmosphere that makes them want to stay awhile.
Local workers will meet up for a quick coffee to-go or sit and enjoy a lunch break together. Retired people sit and chat. Some people do business or just “talk shop.” You’ll hear people discussing a favourite book, or see someone enjoying a coffee break alone with their newspaper.
And young moms (or dads) will stop in for a brief moment of refuge from their hectic day.
For food, every café is different: you’ll usually find fresh baked goods and made-to-order sandwiches, but no two places are the same. The snacks and treats, as well as the lunch menu, always offer what each café does best.
You come away not just fed and refreshed, but genuinely happy that you visited.
Meet me at the pub!
If visiting a local café is like sharing cake and coffee at the kitchen table, a good pub is like the living room of the community.
Unlike a lounge or a dive bar, a good pub isn’t all about drinking. Friends, neighbours, and strangers are welcome to enjoy a meal and a beer, or maybe just one or the other.
A visitor to any small town, just about anywhere in the world, is wise to make the local pub the first place they stop. They will get an instant sense of the community, there’s always someone to answer any questions, and a bit of small talk can lead to a genuinely friendly conversation.
And all over the world—in a farming-town bar, an English pub, a German gasthof, or a Mediterranean taverna, the food is local and legendary.
Cafés and pubs: where communities meet
Let’s face it, we love our fast food and our familiar franchises. But if you want to feel at home—whether you’re in your own town or just visiting—a locally-owned café or pub is a great place for homestyle food and sincere hospitality.
