Tuesday has become Jean-Talon Market Day since it’s my wife’s day off and she likes to attend a Yoga class while I forage among the farmers’ stalls at the market. The trick to effective farmers’ market shopping is to identify the legitimate vendors from the pseudo farmers. The pseudo farmers buy their stuff from the wholesale terminal just like the guys at Loblaw’s, Sobey’s, Metro, etc. They dress up in overalls, don’t shave, and stick a wheat stalk between their teeth for that hayseed look. But their stuff is no better than what you can get at your local grocery store.  The legitimate guys are either farmers, or work cooperatively with farmers to distribute their produce. They get farming and things that grow or go mooo. Their stuff is fresher and they are in a position to actually educate you about varietals, growing methods, seed types, etc. In other words, if you want to learn about your food as well as eat better stuff, you need to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. The key is to ask lots of questions and see if they are both knowledgeable and passionate about what they do. Once you’ve identified the legitimate guys, the beauty is that you don’t waste your time shopping around…you trust them to sell you great products that will always taste better than the commercial crap.