Perhaps one of the simplest pleasures in life, is gathering your ingredients at the farmers market. I’m convinced it is a universal joy denominator around the world. Who wouldn’t prefer to gather local ingredients over imported fruits and vegetables from who knows where? What an amazing way to feel like a local when visiting a faraway land. Next time you decide to venture off to an unknown land, I urge you to head to the local farmers market. Maybe you’ll end up in a serene Italian village picking out fresh tomatoes with all the cute grandmas preparing for dinner. If you’re really lucky, culture shock could ensue with the hustle and bustle of vendors screaming prices in a whimsical language you can’t even pretend to understand.
Simple Mediterranean Pasta
There is something wholesome and divine about eating a dish from the farmers market. It grounds you, brings you back down to earth, and wraps you in a warm blanket. It’s the simplicity of it all, that you can pick a ripe tomato, mix it with a few hand picked herbs, and toss it gracefully in some pasta to create such a welcoming dish. This dish isn’t bells and whistles, but rather tweeting birds in the distance and a gentle breeze waking up you up from a nap. That feeling is most likely why I cling to walking the farmers market wherever I go. It feels like home. More importantly, it gives me a glimpse into someone else’s home.
Feels Like Home
A lively farmers market feels like home where ever I go. I often reminisce on my first “job”. A tiny little 10 year old drawing up the map to my future plans. I spent nearly every weekend with my Grandpa Seifert at the Michigan farmers markets trying to make a buck. You see, Grandpa Seifert was the local farmer and hustle was in his blood. Saturday mornings I would willingly gather my things- a watch that was just for show, my notepad to keep track of sales, and my business cards to hand out to anyone.
Courtney’s Herb Garden
I’ll never forget the feeling of my first business cards in my hand. I felt so proud and official. For years, I had been working with my Grandpa at the market. A well seasoned 10 year old with at least 2 years experience under my belt, I was ready to branch out and make a name for myself.
I knew my herbs would sells, my product was theoretically like all the other herbs floating around the market, but it had something they didn’t. Magic. It had the joy of a 10 year old that still believed in fairy tales and ghost stories. My eyes had a glimmer in them that believed in what I was selling, call it pride. I was a 10 year old on a mission to put every other herb garden out of business. Cut throat and unapologetic.
Faraway Kitchen Launch
Creating Faraway Kitchen was a no brainer for me. The old saying goes “Do what you love, and the rest will come.” We all intrinsically have fears, loads of them. I think that is a price you have to pay with the desire to create things. To put your most transparent self and naive hopes into the world is quite literally… the only way. What’s the alternative? To sit and stew in the worry of failure and taunting voicing in the back of your mind? I’m not about that life, that life has won too many times before. Creating Faraway Kitchen was, undoubtedly, a collaboration with that 10 year old fearless version of myself. A divine knowingness that putting myself out there was the actual win.
“Ideas of every kind are constantly galloping toward us, constantly pass through us, constantly trying to get our attention.” -Elizabeth Gilbert