I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I pretty much have the best job ever. Case in point, yesterday for my “job” I met with two women who have just started a Food Truck business called Wrap-N-Roll and are interested in sourcing some of their ingredients for their healthy-but-yummy wraps from local producers. Let me re-cap: 1. Food Truck 2. Healthy but yummy 3. Local ingredients. FTW!
Here’s their food truck, which is actually a re-vamped RV from the 80’s, which I LOVE:

This beast has been given a second life!

I met them at the Virginia Beach Farmers Market, which hosts a produce auction every Wednesday night. This was my first time at a produce auction, but I thought it would be a good place to take them so they could purchase local product in bulk, meet the farmers, get a feel for local food pricing, etc etc. The whole thing is a little daunting and the auctioneer is seriously talking a mile a minute. For a southern girl like me who is used to hearing people talk …. uh…. slooowwweeerrr….it was a little hard to keep up with. Halfway through the auction the market manager and my former boss showed up and suggested I only try to catch every 10th word or so. He was right, but fortunately I wasn’t bidding, although it was incredibly tempting – everything looked so good!

Peaches, cabbage, watermelon and a mixed box of corn, egglplant, tomatoes and peppers.

Yeaaaaa….THAT good. My food truck ladies bought what they needed and the whole thing worked out great. Maybe next week I’ll go back and do a little bidding . . .
Produce auctions are great for restaurants, retail outlets and just ordinary people wanting to buy in bulk for canning, jams or jellies, or other preservation methods. The prices are a steal and the product is incredibly fresh. Most of farmers who grow the product are actually there at the market. In fact, two of my very favorite farmers were there yesterday – Jim and Anne Bright.

Jim and Anne Bright

Anne and Jim are long-time family friends and Anne was even the mistress of ceremonies at my wedding. I love anything where I get to talk to farmers about what they’re growing – they are the most knowledgeable and helpful people. In fact, one of the ladies I was there with wanted to purchase a box from them, but along with other products she needed, it also included beets, which she had no idea what to do with (for shame!). Before she could even finish bemoaning this fact, Anne had given her an easy, but no doubt delicious, recipe for them. Which brings me to my next point:

Click on the image to go to the USDA food compass

If you can talk to the person who grew your food, then you don’t have to worry about things like “what country did this come from? What are their safety and food standards? Was it sustainably grown? Were herbicides or pesticides used? How fresh is this? What do I do with it? How do I store it?” All the answers to those questions are standing right in front of you! And then when you support restaurants (like Wrap-n-Roll) and other outlets who are also sourcing local product, you don’t have to worry about the same things when you’re eating out. Yay for food safety! And sustainability! And supporting your local economy! You get to eat fresh, local, delicious food and as a bonus – you’re a superhero! FTW!