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Walked through the old French Quarter market and the produce stalls felt different now
I was in New Orleans last month for a family thing and wandered through the old market area around 6am. Used to be you'd see the same vendors day after day, guys who'd been there 20 years, knew every farmer by name. This time it was mostly younger folks, tablets taped to the crates, QR codes for payment. Not bad, just different. The basil still smelled amazing though. One guy told me he sources from three states away now because the local farms dried up after the storms. Makes me wonder if we're losing something in the food chain that can't be replaced by an app. Anyone else notice their local market changing like this? What do you miss most about the old way?
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mason.brian22d agoMost Upvoted
Oh come on, is it really that deep? People have been whining about markets changing since markets existed. I remember when my grandma complained about the grocery store replacing the butcher counter with pre-packed meat, and guess what, we all survived. Those tablets and QR codes are just tools, man. The basil still smells fine, the food's still there, and honestly, some of those old guys were selling bruised peaches and calling them heirloom. I get missing the stories, but half the time the story was just "my uncle picked this yesterday" and it was picked three days prior. Maybe the younger crowd is actually better at logistics, and that's okay.
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My buddy runs a food stall up in Portland and had to swap out his whole supplier list last year. He used to get these amazing heirloom tomatoes from a farm an hour away, but the guy sold the land to a developer. Now he's getting them from a co-op thats like 400 miles out, and he says they taste different, more watery. He keeps a photo of the old farmer on his phone, just to remind himself what the real deal looked like. Told me the hardest part isnt the logistics, its that he cant tell customers the story behind the food anymore. That connection was half the product, you know?
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