3rd and Fairfax

The Los Angeles Farmers Market
3rd and Fairfax

outdoor dining area

pastrami sandwich

one of the walkways

I call Boston my hometown, only because I spent my formative years in my late teens and early twenties in Boston. But Boston isn't really my hometown, Los Angeles is, as I was born and breed there for my childhood. It has been decades since I have been to 3rd and Fairfax, since I was a child. I actually forgot about the farmers market over all these years. With this recent trip to L.A. we went to the farmer's market for lunch, and I got an overwhelming feeling that I remember this place. I remember the shoe cobbler, at one of the entryways. I remember my mom taking shoes there to be fix. I remember how one of the meat counters look. I remember ice cream and I remember a place where my mom would get some rotisserie chicken. What was new to me, or I did not remember, was the French cheese and wine shop. It was a flood of memory that I have forgotten about once I stepped foot in the market.

Going to 3rd and Fairfax during this recent trip makes me think that my time as a child with my mom, who did all the grocery shopping for my family, shaped how I seek food and eat food today. When I was a kid, my mom would go to the farmers market, the local grocery store, the country mart, and live chicken farm, to find the best and freshest food for my family. She did not and still does not shop at W@lm@art, and neither do I because you just give up on quality and freshness from that box store.

If you look at how I source food for my house, it is as if I am seeking 3rd and Fairfax of my childhood. I do most of my grocery shopping at West Nashville Farmers Market, the Nashville Farmers Market, and my CSA The Barefoot Farmer. All the meat, cheese, milk, butter and veggies that I need I can source from local organic farmers. I do go to grocery stores for fruit and those prepacked snacks I love like potato chips and Mook Cheese Straws. But for the most part, the veggies eaten in my house are all from local farmers all year round.

I really don't think that I could ever live in L.A. again because it is not the L.A. that I left as a kid. But, that overwhelming feeling I got going into the L.A. Farmers Market is priceless. If only I could bottle that feeling of well being, childhood wonderment and good food...