Ventura, CA-

The Green Energy News creative team took a trip down to the local farmers market in Downtown Ventura, CA to take a look at the organic and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables offered by the local farmers and merchants. It also gave us an opportunity to test out a new scene file on our Panasonic HMC150 camcorder =) This was our first time visiting this certified farmers market and must say we were quite impressed by the variety of offerings. In addition to the traditional fruits and vegetables, the Ventura farmers market had homemade fruit drinks, tamales, kettle corn, fresh flowers and even some LIVE entertainment. While the size of the market isn’t huge, the offerings are truly local and we noticed most vendors pushing their pesticide-free crops. Living in Downtown LA, we feel we inhale enough nasty stuff on a daily basis… so why add pesticides to our diet? Yeah, the produce is more expensive than supermarket offerings, but I have NEVER tasted tomatoes so fresh! I mean, these things were like candy. *FACT* most tomatoes you get from the store aren’t even ripe! Yeah they might look nice and red, but the tomatoes are picked weeks before ripening only to sit in refrigerated warehouses where they are exposed to ethylene (unsaturated hydrocarbon) to get that red coloring. On the pesticide side-of -things, strawberry growers often use an even more disturbing chemical compound methyl iodide (a known carcinogen, neurotoxin, and thyroid disruptor) to keep their crops pest-free.

So if you’re in the Los Angeles area, grab a cup of coffee and head on down to Ventura Saturday mornings from 8:30am till 12 noon and enjoy the sites and sounds of this wonderful local farmers market. The market is located in beautiful historic Downtown Ventura on the corner of Palm/Santa Clara St. No pets are allowed inside the fenced off market, but we saw many dog owners fastening their furry friends alongside the perimeter while enjoying the market. While at the farmers market, we really got a feel for the tight-knit community in the Ventura/Oxnard area and almost forgot we where a mere 60 miles from Hollywood. Local farmers markets help bring us back to a simpler time in America, a time when farmers were motivated by quality and taste… not profit margins.