“Does it taste good?,” a woman asks me.

I was at the Union Square greeenmarket and had just bitten into a piece of French sorrel from Jim Grillo’s Northshire Farms. I’m chewing, waiting for the tangy, lemonyness to kick in, and expecting some bitterness. The lemonyness came, vividly bright and refreshing. The bitterness did not.

“It tastes wonderful,” I say.

I mention to farmer Jim my surprise at the lack of bitterness. “That’s because it’s from real French seed,” he explains.

“As opposed to?” I ask.

“American junk. Mine might look a little funny but it tastes great,” he declares.

Sorrel, and other produce, is often cultivated to yield specific characteristics of size (usually the bigger the better), and shape, all at the expense of flavor and nutritional value.

As I purchase Jim’s sorrel (as well as his tasty ramps and true, wild dandelion greens), I’m thankful for all the small farmers accessible through the greenmarkets here in the city. I appreciate that I can talk with the farmers and ask questions about their food and work. Just like at Moore Brothers – it’s a special experience when one of our wine growers visits the store to showcase their wine and I can see the faces behind some of the wines I like so much.

Last Sunday the New York Times published a wonderful op-ed piece by Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant, “Change We Can Stomach,” extolling the many virtues and benefits of small-scale farming. But one particular statement gnawed at me:
“If financially pinched Americans opt for the cheapest (and the least healthful) foods rather than cook their own, the food industry will continue to reach for the lowest common denominator.”

Financially pinched? Considering this day and age of monthly bills for cell phone, deluxe cable, high-speed Internet, designer clothes and the weekly (perhaps nightly for some) $15 cocktails, it seems even those who are not “financially pinched” focus on cost over quality when it comes to food and wine.

It surprises me when people ask if Moore Brothers carry any good “$10 and under” wines – a concept that seems to have been floating around for at least ten years. Ten years ago, many of the monthly expenses mentioned above weren’t as common or excessive. So there has to be more to it than being “financially pinched.”

I have many theories on this. In short, they involve a tangled web of ignorance, priorities, and how quality and healthy are defined:

(A)We are so separated from our food source these days and therefore, simply unaware of the many “evils” in the food industry (abused, sick animals raised in unsanitary factory-farms, synthetic, nitrogen-based fertilizers used to grow commercial produce that pollute the environment, mega-purple and wood chips in wine). And…

(B)We’d rather spend more money on things other than food (I should know – during my fast-foodie years I would have paid more for a “pleather” handbag before paying more for pasture-raised chicken.); and we have very disparate, perhaps flat out wrong, ideas on what constitutes quality and healthy (I used to think I was being healthy for eating “vitamin-fortified foods” like Cheerios and Balance Bars).

These days I really make an effort to learn about food issues, and expose myself to real food and wine. And I find that just like Northshire Farm’s French sorrel, the small-farm, artisan-produced wines available at Moore Brothers might “look a little funny” (i.e., they’re not from big name, familiar producers) but they taste great and are a product of sustainable (some biodynamic), well-farmed vineyards and traditional, artisan wine making.