I remember when

we stopped at farm markets because it was cheaper to buy local, as well as fresher. Maybe the corn or tomatoes had been picked that day and was someone's 4-H project. The food wasn't covered with wax to preserve it; it wasn't a variety bred to be hard and tough to withstand thousands of miles of shipping; it hadn't been covered with pesticides; it wasn't tasteless from being over fertilized. Before Kenny Road became so developed, there was a wonderful outdoor market called "Kern's" That has apparently changed.

"New research suggests that the average supermarket shopper is willing to pay a premium price for locally produced foods, providing some farmers an attractive option to enter a niche market that could boost their revenues. The OSU study also showed that shoppers at farm markets are willing to pay almost twice as much extra as retail grocery shoppers for the same locally produced foods. Co-authors of the study are Marvin Batte, the Fred N. VanBuren professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State; graduate student Kim Darby; outreach program leader Stan Ernst; and Brian Roe, OSU professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics." OSU News

If "local" is just another marketing scheme, I think I'll save on gas and just head for Marc's or Meijer's. At least if you're preparing food for only two, frozen will probably be "fresher" in terms of nutrient value than buying fresh. A few days in the frig will destroy much of what you went to that little market for, to say nothing of what riding around in your hot car did while you did the rest of your shopping.

Speaking of corn. I saw an article about summer jobs for kids in Friday's USAToday. CEOs told about their earliest paid jobs. Diane Irvine 49, CEO of online fine jewelry retailer Blue Nile detasseled corn at age 14. That was my first "real" (non-babysitting, non-paper route) job too. I even wrote a poem about detasseling corn. Maybe I just haven't had enough crummy jobs in my life, but I'd put detasseling right at the top of truly awful.