We have been following the local food movement for a few years now if not since the 70′s when we would go to pick your own farms thoughout the US and Canada. With the amount of traveling that we personally do and the travelers and vacationers that come our way, daily, there are many discussions about this movement. What continues to ring true and is a consistent thread through all of the conversations is that local is where you are today. People do not have to be tied to their home, to their work area, or to the 100 miles from their residence to maintain their belief in local food consumption. Local is where you are today.
Buying local enriches your experience no matter where you are in the world
When we are in New York, we buy locally, when we are in Paris, we buy locally. There seems to be a radical idea out there that when you venture out of the 100 mile radius of your home, you are breaking the local food law. How boring, and how limiting. Buying local where ever you may be at the moment is half the fun. You get to try new flavors, find alternative off the beaten track places, have adventures and enhance your food, cultural and physical experience.
Tulum fruit market where you can be local and feel good about it
Local ranchers and gardeners in Tulum deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to many road side stores and stands along the highway in the town of Tulum. These fruits and vegetables are fresh, ripe and ready to eat. The advantage of buying locally in Tulum is that you know you are supporting local farmers, ranchers and gardeners, you know that there are minimal if any pesticides used (farmers can not afford chemicals so little are used to ensure crop sustainability) and the seeds are indigenous seeds, not GMO seeds shipped in from other countries. With the ban on GMO seeds and a deep-rooted philosophy in preserving original seeds from fruit and vegetables, you will have authentic fruits and vegetables.
Sure, you can go to the local grocery store, which is a chain of Mexican grocery stores that import fruits and vegetables from all over the world, but why? There are so many great fruit stands that have ready to eat fruit and vegetables there seems no need to go anywhere else.
Local fruit stands have local produce
When living locally and buying locally half the fun when traveling and vacationing is tasting the local food. At the fruit market it is about tasting the local produce and indigenous fruits that you may have back home but the taste is not the same. There is something about small ranches and farms that make tomatoes, avocados, onions, carrots, dragon fruit, pineapple, papaya taste – that-much-better! The sun is stronger so the fruit and vegetable are sweeter, they stay on the vine longer and are not prematurely picked. There are a zillion reasons why local fruit stand produce just-tastes-better. But we will let you be the judge.
How you know the fruit is local
It is pretty simple. YOu can not store your produce for days on end in your fridge. When you buy fruit or veggies, eat them. They are ripe and ready to eat. Up north when I have found in desperation that I have to buy off the shelf produce, this produce lasts longer than I thought possible. We won’t get into the reasons why, they just do. Tulum fruit and veggies are meant to be eaten now, or over the next 48 hours. The produce is not manipulated to last days on end. Shopping is a daily if not bi-daily activity to ensure that you have just enough to eat without anything going to the compost. Enjoy this ritual, it is actually quite fun and you will find that the stock will change as quickly as well.
Buy from who you know while in Tulum on vacation
We know most of the fruit stand owners in town and we don’t have a favorite, our favorite is just to buy at a fruit stand! Taste the difference and try new stuff! You just may like it and come back for some more. At Casa de las Olas and the restaurants that we recommend to our guests, all of us buy locally and would not have it any other way.
