“What do you miss from California?” People asked when they learned that we lived there for decades. “Farmers Market!” has been the answer we never really said out loud. The inquirers rarely really wanted to know. It was only a conversation starter. The right answer was to talk about the wonderful things Seattle: coffee, beers, wines, seafood, water sceneries, etc. Then, this weekend, we discovered the Broadway Sunday Farmers Market: a mere 20 minutes’ walk away.
I knew there is the famed Pike Place Market and farmers do sell their products there. We wanted a true neighborhood market where you can have a conversation with those who actually grew, harvested, or made the stuff. We can get pristine cellophane supermarket goods anytime. What we want is that connection to the dirt and roots: worn jeans, rubber boots, earthworms crawling back, and Rollie-Pollies digging back in.
What do we missed from California? Its dirt.