Opening Day, 25 October 2010

I’m Lynn Krogseng and I created Neighbors Market because there were no stores that quite satisfied my desire for clean, local, natural foods.  I have long been consciously set on buying local, where ever it was that I might be.

Once I moved to Vancouver, WA, I attempted to frequent the farmers market here, but it was frustrating that it was open only on weekends.  I wanted to be able to buy from the local farms all week.

I also wanted to be able to shop without worrying if the product I was picking up was heavily processed, or supporting big corporations with over-compensated CEOs.  I wanted clean food and to support small and independent businesses.

Being aware of the inhumane conditions that many meat animals are raised and harvested in, I absolutely didn’t want to support those industries, even inadvertently.  I wanted to know where the meat I was eating came from and know that the animal was humanely treated and allowed to be true to its nature.  And I certainly didn’t want food that had travelled around the globe.

So, armed with a business plan and the encouragement of my acquaintances, I opened Neighbors Market.  I see Neighbors as a means of helping farmers sell what they harvest without the hassle and time requirements of manning a market-booth and as a helpful resource for other locavores that have busy lives and don’t have the opportunity to reserve shopping exclusively to the weekends from May to October.

An important objective of Neighbors is education.  I think most people would change their buying and eating habits if they knew more about the ethics of their food choices, the environmental harm, the economic damage to their community and that of people they’ll never meet that grow the foods in foreign lands, of the extreme energy costs of foods that are in the typical food store, and of the nutritional consequences to themselves and their children when they choose from an unsustainable food system.

Since I opened Neighbors Market in October of 2010, I have been on quite a food journey myself.  From the farmers and vendors, from my amazing and wonderful customers, from the helpers at the market, I’m learning something more every day.  As I become aware of ever more complexity in the American food system, I become determined to make shopping at Neighbors Market a simpler and more enjoyable event.

Check in on the blog pages to see what I’m discovering, both happy and disturbing.  I’ll share what I’m learning as I go, including recipes and new information.