Chronicles of Climate Action: A Market Mentality

Early into Season 3, the Doo household (Jen, the team captain of Team Heroes Approaching Zero shown holding HEC sign above) made a habit of frequenting City Market in downtown Charlottesville on Saturdays. 

They purchased approximately 80% of their produce and most of their eggs straight from the vendors at the Market. For the most part, the cost of items purchased at the market was comparable to grocery store costs with an added bonus of less to no packaging waste. They applied a lot of creativity to meal preparation by determining the menu based on their market finds. They usually chose items that were flexible and could be added to their usual menu, like greens and vegetables for grain bowls. Their adventurous sides often led them to fun ingredients like Japanese yams or shishito peppers. The advantage of purchasing straight from a vendor is they can usually provide direction on how to prepare their goods.

The Doo household has numerous favorites from the market but they are especially fond of items that they discovered for the first time at market, like hardy kiwi. They also enjoy the versatility of offerings at the market and take advantage of the available vegetable starts, herb plants, soap, cheese, and honey. A favorite splurge is a pre-prepared meal from a variety of vendors, especially Pearl Island.

They recently enrolled in a CSA, that is provided by Whisper Hill Farm, a vendor at City Market. With ingredients mostly provided by the CSA, they recently prepared a quinoa bowl dinner with miso-roasted chickpeas, carrots, turnips, sautéed chard, lettuce, sprouts, and scallions.

Sounds amazing!

For more success stories, read about the Robinson Household, Dellimore Household, Purdue Household , the McElwain Household, and the Wong Household. And if you or someone you know is interested in joining the Home Energy Challenge, contact andrea@theclimatecollaborative.org.