All this fruit for $17

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."  I have always appreciated Michael Pollans simple food rules.  I try and practice his rules when shopping the supermarket and putting food on the table for my family.  

​This summer with our busy schedules, teaching dance workshops every day & my son's baseball schedule in the evenings, I am sad to say our plates have not been as colorful as Michael Pollan would have liked. A colorful plate is always more beautiful & aesthetically pleasing, but it also means access to a wider array of nutrients to benefit your health.  With 3 active kids we can't keep enough fruit & vegetables in our house.  

It is rare that I have a Saturday off of teaching, but today was a quiet & special family day. It was gorgeous out and we started with a walk around Lexington & Concord and had a delicious outdoor lunch at Main Street Cafe.  My salad was delicious! 

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In the afternoon, my sister in law and I put the wagon in the car and headed into Boston to Haymarket.  We parked on Milk Street (metered parking) and walked about 10 minutes to the market so we didn't have to pay for full day parking. 

As one of America's oldest open air markets, Boston's Haymarket is a cultural cornerstone of the city.  It is minutes from the North End and a bustling hub for fresh fruits & vegetables. It is open YEAR ROUND, although I hear the winter months are mostly fish.   

The best part - the PRICES.  The first sign we saw was for grapes....
$1 a bag! WHAT! I paid more than $6 at Wegmans last week! 
$2 for a HUGE watermelon
$1 for 4 pints of blackberries 
$1 for 4 cucumbers
$1 for 7 gala apples
$1 for 4 mangos (I 💕 mangoes, but they are usually SO expensive)
$1 for 2 pineapples
$1 for organic strawberries

We had spent $9 and our wagon was full, but we kept shopping.  My niece was covered in fruits & veggies.

Why is it so cheap? Haymarket is the last chance to sell, which is why prices go down throughout the day.  It's cheap because it's unsold food bought from markets and distributors. There's nothing wrong with it, but if you bought 10 boxes of strawberries because they were cheap, you better make a lot of smoothies the day you buy them! 

When we couldn't fit anymore we headed back to the car very proud of our purchases.  Round trip  with our walk & shopping took less than 2 hours and we came home with a lot fresh produce.  We ended the day eating huge salads outside. The kids loved the giant fruit salad we made. 

Michael Pollan would be proud.