Food, Glorious Food!

One of the things I’ve learned since starting this blog a few weeks ago is the strong interest many Forest Hills residents have in gaining access to better quality, healthier food. This relatively new blog has seen a jump in traffic since I posted photos of what many other people in New York City already take for granted — a local Farmer’s Market.
In case you’re not aware, this Saturday was the first day for the Forest Hills Farmer’s Market on Metropolitan Avenue. (see my previous posts for the photos and information about the new Market.) Attendance the first day wasn’t bad, but was held down by the heavy rain. But judging by the online interest in the Market shown by visitors here and on blogs like Queen Central, it should be a big success.
This all points to one of the most unfortunate things about living the “urban” life here in Forest Hills — which partly means you, like me, do not own a car because you moved to Forest Hills from Manhattan and didn’t own one then and aren’t going to start now for a bunch of reasons — without a car you are restricted to Key Food or Associated for your supermarket. Not something to jump for joy about. Have you seen the quality of produce in Key Food? Thank God we also have Natural to fulfill our need for that!
But take one trip to any suburban town, or Manhattan, and you see what we carless have been missing. There are entire categories of new foods that have arisen over the years that I probably haven’t even encountered!
So it’s no surprise to me that there is such an interest in the new Farmer’s Market with its charming mixture of fresh, high quality produce and gourmet food, something our community has been sorely lacking.
If some developer or supermarket chain finally realizes that there are plenty of carless Forest Hillers who are aching for a pleasurable grocery experience within easy walking distance they will be rewarded with a very successful business indeed, as the Farmer’s Market vendors are discovering.