So today I visited a Farmers’ Market for the first time to see how the prices are in comparison to items you would buy at a store. While I haven’t had a chance to go to an actual farm yet to see the cost of buying the items that way, I figured this would be something semi related.

The location for this one was pretty convenient for me as it was actually around my area and so I had a nice walk. There were these signs along the blocks to show you that you were going the right way.

Eventually, I saw a bunch of tents lined up with vendors from a distance.

There were a lot of people I thought for a market event like this. I thought initially it would just be a handful of people who are regulars to it or are say very picky about getting items that are locally grown and produced.

As you may have guessed, there was pretty much vendor after vendor of grocery items available with some people even creating their own packaged items like juices and dehydrated foods.

The prices were definitely on the high side I thought such as seeing a price of about $2.50 per pound for carrots and $1.25 a pound for apples. As an example, the average price I see at stores is about 69 cents a pound for carrots and about 79 cents a pound for apples. Of course, the main selling point was that every vendor advertised their products as being organic.

Although, sometimes these types of points didn’t really click with me too much such as a vendor selling whole walnuts that are still in its shell and saying how it has all been washed and grown to avoid toxins. Like with that, I don’t see too much of a difference since you still have to break through the shell to get to the item in the first place.

Overall, this type of market seems to be a paradise for people who live and swear by organic food it seems as you are definitely paying a premium price for what you buy. At the same time, many of the items seem like it is better to buy at a store as I even overheard one farmer on how he usually sells to companies wholesale only. Hence, they get a better deal and can probably sell it to you for less than what you can buy it for at this event at a consumer volume.

I had a fun quick tour though. I definitely didn’t expect rock bottom prices like what I hope to see when I get the chance to go to an actual farm and see the deals you can get that way, but in general it’s too bad that the prices wasn’t at least the same or very close to the ones you could get at the supermarket.

One strange thing when I visited the event was this sign:

Need I say more?

As you may know I was contemplating about going directly to a farmer to see the prices that you can buy items for as it was suggested to me that I could save a lot of money that way. As a result too, recently I have been doing some research and there seems to be a ton of local farmer markets that are conducted during the weekends.

I was thinking of dropping by one of them to see what it is like. Now the only question is which one to go to as the websites indicate that every market is pretty unique in terms of its offerings and organization. I’ll be sure to document some of my findings if I do go as it should be interesting from a price comparison point of view.

I received an interesting tip today on a possible way to save a lot of money which made a lot of sense. For myself I usually have a busy schedule and sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to eat everything that you need (Especially since I participate in a lot of physically active activities as well).

A few years back as a result I decided to try out raw juicing as it just sounded like a good idea from a health and time point of view. I can definitely say it has been a great addition throughout the years and as a result people notice that I go through a lot of fruits and vegetables. So today I was told that since I use so many items such as carrots for the sole purpose of juicing that I should try checking out some local farmers and buying these items through them directly instead as it should be way cheaper than what the stores charge.

I was just thinking how this made perfect sense as similar to other items you usually pay a markup by going through the middle man. The main question on my mind was the travel time as one place that was recommended to me seems like it is about 27 km away from where I live and so I would have to factor in the travel costs as well.

But this definitely sparked my interest though as I’m always looking for better ways to save money and in this case I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get better products as well. I’ll probably make a post in the future about it once I get some good price comparisons and the opportunity to check a place out.

One thing that I have often noticed when it comes to buying general groceries is that fruits and vegetables in larger supermarkets are often cheaper if you are buying it in a pre-packaged manner. On the other hand, if you are selecting it fresh and paying by the pound I have often found it is cheaper from smaller businesses.

As an example, recently I was looking at buying a bunch of carrots and went to a supermarket here called Superstore. They have a 5LB pre-packaged and selected bag of carrots for $1.98 each. In contract, most smaller stores would sell the same brand at about $1+ every 2LB. I looked at two smaller stores here in BC with one called Donald’s market and the other called Sunrise market.

But noticeably, if you opt to buy your own freshly selected fruits and vegetables by the pound as mentioned, it is remarkably cheaper at the smaller stores. For example, at Superstore I was looking at the apples and its prices for a specific brand was over $1 per pound. At the smaller stores they started at about 65 cents a pound.

This was a pretty consistent theme too. So that is one way to save money on your food bills if you are looking to save some money or possibly getting more for your dollar.