Cherry tomatoes from Cowtown Farmer's Market are locally grown

I’ve followed a little bit with Kevin at Fortworthology as he works to build support for local culture for the city. Fortworthology has focussed on local architecture and music, as well as restaurants, and I hope to see more business coming to these endeavors, but around here, in my house, the biggest monthly spending item is food and so we’ve been trying to support local culture by buying food locally.

Four months or so now after I wrote “we don’t shop at Walmart anymore” we haven’t gone back there to do the weekly shopping. Instead, we have been going to City Market and Costco, spliting the weekly budget between the two. Though Costco is no local venue, it does allow us to buy a few items at really good prices (such as milk and cheese) and this frees up more funds to shop the local market.  Today I stopped by City Market for peppers, pepperoni (it’s pizza night) and a bottle of Cherry 7-up, along with their trademark free soft serve ice cream.

City Market carries many Fort Worth brands, such as Renfro’s bottled relishes and sauces and OB Macaroni, and this afternoon I noticed that there were more cars in the parking lot. I asked the checker (and one of the good things about City Market is you have time to talk to the checker, the mad rush is not part of the experience) if business had improved and she said yes, more people are coming every week. City Market is owned by a local family and has put out a great deal of effort to revitalize the store. I hope more people will give them a try. Especially those who felt like they couldn’t take another trip to Big Box for weekend groceries, as I did.

Another way to shop locally is the Cowtown Farmer’s Market, now open Saturday morning from 8 to 12, as it is all year, and Wednesdays, 8 to 12. The produce, tamales, bread, personal care products, and locally-grown camraderie (everything at the market is produced within 150 miles of Fort Worth, so it’s local-local) is at a peak during the summer. Take a trip out the 183 traffic circle and see for yourself. Cowtown Farmer’s Market also deserves your support if you can give it.

From the Cowtown Farmer’s Market website:

Did You Know? By shopping Cowtown Farmers Market you are:

* ensuring farmers earn fair prices for the fruits of their labor
* protecting your community’s access to healthy, fresh, local produce
* helping Fort Worth’s economy

If you spend $100 at a grocery store, only $25 stays here.
If you spend $100 at a farmers market, $62 goes back into the local economy — and $99 out of $100 stays in the state.
So, where do you want your money to go?