I began this week’s EMWTTSFM fixated on the remarkable abundance of tomatoes, corn, root crops, and everything else that defines summer at the Saturday market. That probably surprises no one who knows me.
Three of the photos in this column show large, thick-sliced market tomatoes: a BLT on a croissant, a hamburger on croissant bread, and an open-faced croissant with cheese, tomato, and bacon, finished under the broiler. That is an abundance without even mentioning Yoder’s Delectable corn.
This is the time of year when the Saturday Farmers Market makes restraint difficult. You buy more tomatoes because they are the ones you wait all year to eat. You buy a dozen ears of corn even though nine would probably have been enough. You choose the quart of pickles instead of the pint because the quart somehow feels like the more sensible choice.
Then you get home and start negotiating with the refrigerator. Move this here. Put that there. Maybe the tomatoes can stay on the counter. Surely the corn will fit somewhere. The refrigerator fills, the counter fills, and dinner becomes an exercise in deciding which wonderful thing to eat first.
It is an indulgence, certainly, but an unusually wholesome one. Too many tomatoes. Too much corn. A refrigerator crowded with produce grown nearby by people you may know by name. There are worse problems to have.
Then I remembered Saturday night.
Hours after the farmers market closes, another conversation about food will take place in Westerville. The third annual Fill the Big Bus Middle School Food Drive returns during Night of Hope. The Big Bus and the Rotary Club of Westerville, in partnership with Walmart, are collecting food to stock middle school pantries throughout the district.
The most-needed items are:
Rice
Pasta
Ramen
Fruit snacks
Granola bars
Mac & cheese
Instant oatmeal
Mini-marshmallows
There are no thick-sliced market tomatoes on that list. No just-picked sweet corn. No quart of pickles bought because the pint seemed too small. These foods are chosen for a different reason. They store well, are easy to prepare, and can be carried home by a student who needs them.
And suddenly my refrigerator problem looks very different.
That does not make the farmers market's abundance wrong. Quite the opposite. The market is one place where we can see just how much food, skill, and generosity exist in this community. Farmers grow it, bakers bake it, vendors make it, and customers arrive on Saturday morning to buy it.
The abundance is worth celebrating. But abundance also creates an opportunity.
Plenty and hunger exist within a few miles and a few hours of each other.
On Saturday morning, some of us will stand at a market table, deciding whether we really need another tomato. On Saturday night, others will be working to ensure a middle school pantry has enough rice, ramen, or oatmeal for a student who needs something to eat.
Those two Saturdays are really the same Saturday.
Perhaps enjoying this wonderful August abundance can include more than what appears on the market receipt. Buy the tomatoes. Take home the dozen ears of corn. Get the quart of pickles. Enjoy the remarkable abundance of the Saturday Farmers Market.
Then, while you are out, add something for The Big Bus to the cart.
Saturday gives us a chance to enjoy our personal abundance in the morning and share some of it that night.
Let’s fill the refrigerator. Then let’s fill The Big Bus.
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