The farmers market starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow is opening day of the Farmers Market in East Liberty. This is a good farmers market, too. They have local and organic food, and not just vegetables. There's also people selling meat, chickens, eggs, and canned and baked goods. Basically, everything except for dairy products. Saul and I went frequently last year, and for $10, we could get all the produce we needed for the week, and for another $10, we could get meat too. We spend most of summer eating salad or pasta with lots of vegetables, (oh, I long for zucchini orzo or balsamic tomatoes!) so it was a pretty good deal.

It's from 3-7 in a parking lot near Home Depot. Just take Penn Circle around past Home Depot, and it will be on your left. You can also get in the back way through Baum.

The "international foods" aisle

An open letter to grocery store managers:

I humbly ask that you please do not segregate my food based upon vegetarianism, organic basis, deli-ness, or supposed-country-of-origin. This is extremely aggravating for those of us who shop in your store. While it might cause me to spend more time in your store, it does not cause me to purchase more items. It only causes me to curse at your ill-witted attempt at marketing.

Let's have some examples, shall we?

Hoagie Rolls are bread. They belong in the bread aisle, next to hot dog buns. Not your fancy deli section.

Refried beans. They belong in the canned goods aisle, next to all the other beans. You put them in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle. Really, this isn't hard. BEANS written on the can, and with a picture!

Rice vinegar. It has vinegar in the name. Let's think; maybe stock it next to the vinegar? Do you know how much time I have spent staring at "Cider Vinegar", "Distilled White Vinegar", "Red Wine Vinegar", etc, looking for this? Yup, you put it in the international foods aisle. Thanks so much. Very helpful.

Amy's brand of tomato soup. This is good stuff. I always forget to buy it because it's not in the SOUP aisle. No, it's in the back corner of the store where you stash away all of the "vegetarian and organic" foods. Why do you hide them from your customers? Please make it visible, this soup is quite yummy. Way better than Campbells.

Brie cheese. Your store has cheese in no less than 3 locations. There's the "normal" cheese section by the milk. (This, by the way, is where all cheese should be.) Then there's the "deli" cheese section for expensive cheeses. Then there's the section in the middle of the store for cheeses that aren't quite "deli-worthy", but aren't "normal" enough to be put into the other section. To make it worse, the organization isn't consistent. I have to check all 3 sections if I want to buy some brie. Please, put the cheeses together and make my life easy.

Olives. I'll let you put your lame little olive bar separate from the other food since they aren't in cans. That's fine. But the black olives are in the condiments aisle, and the green olives are in, you guessed it, the international foods aisle. They usually hang out near the "Italian food", as though no one else ever uses olives.

Brown rice. Should be next to rice. It's in international foods. Same goes for other grains, such as cracked wheat. I buy cracked wheat. I never buy it at your store anymore because I have given up trying to find it by determing what ethnic group you think it belongs in. I go to the Strip District for it instead. It takes less time.

Soba noodles are noodles. They belong with other noodles. It's in international foods. Oh, and by the way, they're Japanese noodles. If you're going to insist on segregating them by origin, at least put them next to the Japanese food. Not the Chinese food or Vietnamese food.

Red pepper flakes are a spice. They belong in the baking aisle. Next to the other spices. Yet this in the Mexican section of the international foods aisle next to the Taco Bell seasoning (which is soooo not Mexican, don't even get me started).

Please, I beg you, do not segregate my food by supposed country-of-origin. You aren't going to get it right, anyway.

Thanks,
Frustrated Giant Eagle shopper