Farmer's Markets

I was in Seattle during the middle of February and could not help noticing that almost every tourist guide book and pamphlet mentioned a farmers market in downtown Seattle. Farmer's markets are very interesting places for me and so I visited the place. It was a nice market with a lot of fresh produce, fruits and fish among many other items as well as a large number of people wandering about the place. But it was amusing that such a big deal was made for a simple market. Here where I live in Moscow, Idaho we have a farmers market which is open from May to the end of September. Here too there is much fanfare about this market, it is advertised everywhere as a place to visit.

Such farmers markets are so common place in India that it is amusing that so much is made out of them here. To me, the farmers markets I have been to here in the US simply do not compare to the ones we have in India. Ours are much bigger, have more colorful people, so many more varieties of vegetable and fruits are sold, they have very creative vendors trying everything they can to attract you to their stall, the aromas are much more pleasant and everything is much cheaper.

With better marketing of these farmers markets we could probably attract more tourists to our country than all the tourists visiting now. I hope the new and swanky retail stores popping up everywhere in India don't drive these markets out of business like they have here in the US.