The daily dose of art A PRODUCE MARKET RUT

I can never resist a colorful corner market, especially if it has a grand awning and lots of produce.  And when I can't find one, I simply imagine my own on a small piece of watercolor paper.  The small watercolor sketches today are the result of my imagining.

THE MARKET

Grocery shopping has never been a chore for me, and in recent years it has become a rather pleasant task, one that I look forward to doing.  Over the years I’ve fallen into somewhat of a routine, doing most of my shopping at one of our local Krogers super markets, as well as our seasonal famer’s market.  I suppose I averaged 2 to 3 visits a week to either one.

During our “year of pasta”, the shopping became somewhat predictable; there were the usual staples that I kept on hand, fresh, frozen, or canned, often in excess of our actual need.  My reasoning was, it would eventually all get used.  Everything changed this summer.

Two things were responsible for the change: first was our decision to go to a plant based diet, and second was the opening of the Midtown Market, about 29 blocks from our home.

Our new eating habits, motivated by not so desirable cholesterol numbers, is basically vegetarian, with limited seafood, no red meat, and limited dairy and fats.  We are even developing a taste for whole-wheat pasta…at least for selected brands.  Since we are eating so much fresh produce that has limited shelf life, it is necessary to buy only what will be used in the next 2 days, especially for the greens.  The root veggies allow us more time.  I suspect I could make the shopping more efficient if I planned a careful weekly menu…and followed it.  But that is something I’ve never been able to do, thus the frequent trips to the market.

For a long time I’ve harbored a fantasy of walking to a market in our neighborhood every day to buy the fresh foods for our evening meal, something not very practical in our circumstances.  Driving the 2 or 3 miles to Krogers would not be the same.  Then, in the spring of this year, a young man opened a new food market, featuring fresh produce, meats, and a variety of organic and non-organic gourmet staples and specialty items.

The locally owned Midtown Market is a short 22 blocks from our home, and the quick, easy drive there brings me one step closer to my fantasy.  I love shopping there, and I do just that, at least 5 times a week, getting only what I need for the evening dinner…OK…some times I buy impulsively, but that only supports a local enterprise, right?

FOOD

There is no way to avoid it, but then who would want to do that? Certainly not me. This is my 10th full day in Bologna, and I have had about 60% of my meals out, and the remainder I prepared for myself with whatever I had purchased that day.

The easiest way to shop is to go to the Mercato Delle Erbe located in the center of town. This is a huge indoor market with rows of vendor stalls selling a wide variety of fresh produce and baked goods. Surrounding the stalls are a series of small, permanent shops, some selling a variety of groceries and meats, and other specializing in one or more fares such as meats, cheeses, pasta, etc. In a separate section are vendors selling fresh fish.

Small food shops can be found throughout the city, and in small clusters in several of the very old narrow streets by the Piazza Maggiore. In addition, all over the city are one room stores with fruits and vegetable displayed outside under the porticoes. They do not carry fresh meats and cheeses and function more as tiny convenient stores and seem to be operated by asian-italians. The young man in the one in my neighborhood speaks fairly good english, so I get most of my staples from him.

And then there are the outdoor markets, so far I’ve encountered 3 of them: the Mercati della Tera, a monthly organic food market, the markets at Piazza Aldodrovani, and the combined candy, pastry, and food market in central city. I don’t know the frequency of the last 2.









There are so many photos I want to share...tomorrow I'll post more about the markets.