It was my first day back in Miami from the frost-ridden realm of New Jersey, and you know where this big boy was heading: straight for the local veggies at the farmer’s market.  Sundays are a time for eggplants, Jesus, and empanadas.  Therefore, I gathered my Apple (of Eden) bag and set forth to the Pinecrest Farmer’s Market to taste the fruits forbidden by the centralized, nationally-dispersed food system.  

Coming from New Jersey to Miami is like jumping back into the teeming green pool of life.  There are plants everywhere, yo!  I do miss the tranquility and stillness of wintertime in New Jersey.  Life seems to slow its rapid breath as space stabilizes for the heart to submerge deeper into itself.  I feel like I’ve jumped into Spring too soon, and that I’ve yet to defrost.  But when I really let the sunlight caress my skin as the palms around me titter in the breeze, I know that home’s possible here, too.

Pinecrest Gardens is proud of their plants and they have a big sexy sign to show it.

Before taking a dip or really stopping to question whether or not that red flower is a living botanical specimen or not, I approached the buzzing market.  I immediately encountered some orchids that blew my aesthetic socks off.

To sum up the scene here, I found several organic, high-quality dog food tents, some all-natural soap makers, a terrarium lady, bowls galore, a Venezuelan empanada chef, Zak the Baker, LNB Grovestand, Bee Heaven Farm, a guac and salsa parlor, and several other tents that each contributed their own niche to the market.  I ended up purchasing a jackfruit and passionfruit smoothie from the LNB Grovestand, an empanada from that guy, and hella (excuse my language Jesus!) veggies from Bee Heaven Farm.  The growing season’s in full swing, so everything that we were (tirelessly) harvesting up on the farm in Hudson NY in mid-summer is now emerging here.

Even if the farmer’s market is a bit out of the way from your preferred supermarket and doesn’t stock the dry goods you may be after, it’s still worthwhile to shop in the open air for produce grown in your region that brims with more flavor and nutritional value than anything shipped here from California has to offer.  By engaging with local growers and produce, you also give yourself the opportunity to become more aware of your relationship to the Earth.  But then, you buy an empanada with GMO corn flour and aghhh back again to the City of Eternal Slumber!