We are lucky to have a market near our village that sometimes I just walk to and fro. That walking to the market is my daily exercise which is my way of buying fresh ingredients for our kitchen. Particularly vegetables, it is worth the effort of walking half a kilometer to buy fresh vegetables almost everyday instead of buying once a week and stocking in the refrigerator. That wouldn’t be fresh vegetables anymore. Now that our neighbors have learned of my style, they are also doing what I do – walking to buy fresh ingredients in the nearby market.
I wish I could do that but, I live 20 miles from the nearest town. I usually go shopping for groceries once a month and my husband gets veggies every week by working at a CSA. While they are not "day of" fresh, I still find them to be just fine, especially since I have learn to store them. Also in the summer I do have a small garden of things we do not get at from the CSA so those veggies are supper fresh.
I like that, for I live near a wholesale mart and walking to it is great to buy fresh produce and fruits always. I like the convenience for having a store near by. We also have a Hele Service Station with a mini mart to buy when things when everything else is closed. Our nearest 7-11 is not walking distance like our service station and wholesale mart is in walking distance. Hele Service Station which was Tesoro before is just right across the street from our apt. home. Marukai Wholesale Mart is just about half a block away. When I need a bell pepper for the evening's dinner and don't have it, I just walk to Marukai and get a nice bell pepper for dinner.
It is not possible for me to going to the market on daily basis. So, the best I could do is get a lumpsome amount of vegetables that I use in larger quantities like 2 or 3 kgs of potatoes or tomatoes at a go and use it for a week and a half or so. Buying in bulk also gets me a good discount. They are still fresh even after one and half week. Green leafy veggies are amkng the ones that don't last long and so I buy them as needed.
Well, if someone is having market by walking distance then they should surely go and buy fresh vegetables every day. It is good for health in both way;. I mean we can have daily walk and fresh vegetables are always good for health too. Here unfortunately there is no near by market. We have to use vehicle for going market. So using vehicle everyday in traffic is not easy. So we have to purchase veges for whole week. Though sometimes we go for it more times too.
There are several markets over here, and even the supermarket is walking distance, so we also don't stock up on meat and veggies. We just buy them when we need them. If we need to buy something then we just walk a few steps, and that applies to almost all kinds of food. We live in a commercial area, lucky for us, so everything is easily accessible.
We are fortunate to have a market within walking distance too, though it's usually my husband who drives to go and buy the vegetables and I stay at home with the young kids. My husband also prefers to buy the vegetables more frequently, so we can get fresh vegetables and he usually just goes to the market when we found out there aren't much vegetables for us in the fridge. We don't do that everyday, but perhaps twice a week.
I sigh not to be able to follow this practice. Even few years back, my grandparents used to procure their essentials like that. This is indeed a good way of keeping oneself fit. Here, the constraints are time, proximity of the market and availability. We could hardly buy stuffs twice, a week. As could be guessed, we're compelled to depend on refrigerators.
Vegetables play very important roles in our body, they supply the body with vital elements like enriching the blood and helping reduce the susceptibility of the body to diseases. They help to balance the body metabolism especially after a heavy meal. Vegetables are rich in fibers which help in normal digestion and good shape.
You should consume vegetables at least once a day since they have great and numerous health benefits on our body. Fortunately i live near a high end supermarket that offers fresh vegetables daily and frozen as well in case you're in a hurry.
In my native country India we call them "Vegetable markets on footpath". Farmers/vendors sell vegetables bringing them directly from farms without paying any tax or commission to middlemen and transportation which reduces the cost of vegetables and fruits to almost 30-40%. In some places such markets are available on daily basis and at some other places on different week days but at least 3 days a week. We do most of our fruits and vegetable shopping from these markets which are generally within a walking distance.
It would be a good idea to walk out a bit to buy fresh vegetables if it's possible to do so. Apart from getting the vegetables, the walk would be a useful and somewhat healthy habit. This practice of getting fresh fruits and vegetables daily would also encourage you to more indulge in the consuming of these items because you would be able to get new stuff regularly.
Unfortunately I don't have much time left to do this (but I buy sometimes... I try my best - going every 15 days - because I know it's the better way to buy them). So, I end up going to some supermarket to buy them... But I never give up the quality, wherever I buy.
