Before the economy tanked, the Wednesday Palo Alto Farmers' Market was run by the City of Palo Alto in City Hall. Due to budget cuts, the City stopped its financial support of the market. In response, the Palo Alto Institute (PAI) rescued the market, which is now located at Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto. PAI is trying to grow the market because it believes that our relationship with fresh food shouldn't be confined to leisurely weekend mornings, but should be a relationship that we cultivate throughout the week.We think of Palo Alto as a health-conscious community that is aware of the importance of eating fresh organic produce. And, indeed, the fact that the Palo Alto farmers markets on Saturday and Sunday are always bustling supports our assumption. The Saturday market offers a wider array of produce, whereas the Sunday market offers more music and prepared foods in addition to produce. However, attendance at the Wednesday market has been low and it's hard to understand why this market hasn't flourished in our community. One possible explanation is that some of us in the heart of Silicon Valley find our weekdays too stressful and hectic to take time out to stop and smell the produce.
Wednesdays are traditionally "hump days"- a day that many of us in the West feel we have to climb over to reach the weekend. However, according to the Thai calendar, green, the color of nature, is the color associated with Wednesdays. One of the great things about a Wednesday market in the midst of the workaday bustle, is that it acts as a green oasis. Time slows down there. We can shed our troubles for a few hours. As the founders of the Slow Food movement say, reversing the fast food movement entails seeing ourselves not as consumers, but as part of the production process. Better food gets grown by virtue of our involvement in farmers' markets. Plus, stopping by the Wednesday markets develops our enjoyment of community, nature, outdoor light, and music.
Eating produce from the market for our everyday meals, rather than just at a dinner party on the weekends, is an easy way to decrease the stress brought on by overripe supermarket foods and the unhealthy speed of a modern workday spent in artificial light, temperature-controlled environments, eating processed foods in front of a computer, multi-tasking between the demands of our jobs, checking email and surfing the Internet—not to mention chauffeuring kids around to their afterschool activities or running errands. Rather than seeing Wednesdays as an obstacle on our way to the weekend, we could see Wednesdays as another great opportunity to bring the serenity of our weekends to our weekdays.
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