At the market

There are many reasons I enjoy going to our local market. I like the woman at my favorite vegetable stand who helps me with the correct pronunciations of the different vegetable names in French. I like that the produce is generally much better than what is available in the grocery stores. I like getting to have random interactions with other customers at the market, like this week when the person ahead of me in line was convinced that I was German and was very excited about trying to help me learn French while we picked out our produce.

But putting all of those very sensible reasons for shopping at the market aside, I also enjoy going to the market because of the way all of my purchases are wrapped.

I am always amused by the paper bags (helpfully printed with recipes) holding my potatoes and spinach or the brown paper artfully twisted around bigger things like heads of lettuce and cauliflower.

And I was charmed by the neatly sealed paper bags holding the dried black beans and pearled barley that I picked up on my Saturday morning shopping trip.