Market Apartment Complex that obviously is not in the USA

Little by little markets, particularly farmers' markets, are working their way back into the thinking of people in the USA. But markets like you see all over Europe remain rare in the USA although some dandy ones still exist in some cities, e.g., the Reading Station Market in Philadelphia and the City Market in Kansas City. This is an amazing market apartment complex (in Rotterdam), and it makes so much logistical sense for urban living. How convenient! You won't need a great big huge fridge if you are buying fresh almost daily.  And you won't need a car to bring home a week's worth of groceries either.  Everything about this concept is smart except you don't see such ideas being put forth in the USA. Our country is not very good at acknowledging that just maybe somebody somewhere else has a good idea and has figured out how to do things better than the USA does. TPP would like to see a sky-light down the center and more "green" space below, a tree-lined promenade for example, but hard to argue with otherwise.

Market day & dogs

Our fair city has a nice Saturday morning market with purveyors of everything from art to Zea maize. With stands and booths lined up and down both sides of 3 blocks of downtown city streets it's quite crowded and booths with popular items can have considerable lines of people waiting to purchase fresh produce. So why under such circumstances do people feel the need to bring their dogs? Markets are not a dog location, especially really big dogs, really, really little dogs, and any poorly behaved dogs. And then people with dogs seem to have the need to chat with other people who have their dogs, who then circle each other just enough to entangle all as well as unwary passersby. Dog owners also can be quite cheeky like taking a sample of sausage and giving it to their dog. Does the dog have money? Is the dog going to make a shopping selection? These people are giving away samples to sell sausage not to make your dog's tail wag. Children are also problematical in most cases and when turned loose released from their stroller those of us who are not used to looking out for little knee-biters are likely to tread upon your genetic heritage. Unfortunately the solution is almost as bad as the problem. Strollers the size of SUVs also do not belong in crowed places of any sort, and when driven into the back of your heels, sorry just doesn't cut it. And lastly people, you aren't shopping at Krogers; you're dealing with small vendors, so no they don't take your Discover card and it's helpful if you have lots of small denomination bills because paying for a green pepper with a $100 bill is more than a little silly. But other than these inconsiderates markets are one of my favorites places, but in other countries you don't see dogs, except being sold as food, or strollers, although shopping carts are quite common. In the last overseas market the Phactor visited, someone had turned a large mob of school children loose to conduct some type of food survey that caused them to chase around, trip over your feet, and bump into your person while messing with their cell phones. Felt like a large dog was needed.

Big Thumbs Up for Jungle Jim's

The Phytophactor escaped from Lincolnland for a couple of days to present a research seminar at at Miami University in Ohio. In an academic sense that was quite profitable, but from a recreational perspective, the big event was spending an afternoon at Jungle Jim's market located on Dixie Hwy. just north of Cincinati. As a botanist who teaches about economically important plants and spends a lot of time in the tropics, markets are fascinating places. Unfortunately here in North America, most of our markets have become sanitized, prepackaged, fabrications of true markets. Jungle Jim's is not a true market in the sense of having numerous vendors hawking their wares in a sensory pleasing jumble of activity, but you have the Phactor's word that you have never, ever set foot in a North American market like this one. It's sheer size is awe inpiring, and it seems to have more of everything than any other market anywhere (image of part of the hot sauce aisle). On this particular Saturday, all 34 checkout lines were in business. The produce section, my favorite part, had rambutan, dragon's head, mangosteen, white and black sapote, durian (although frozen), Thai eggplant, lotus root, and fresh galangal for sale, which is only appropriate for a place that started out as a roadside fruit stand. Now the Phactor has had all of these before, but it's great to see them for sale in a market in middle America. Mrs. Phactor got to stock up on her favorite passion fruit concentrate. People have died from exhaustion after getting lost in the wine section and being unable to find their way out, or maybe that was after too much tasting. And for you food wimps out there, Jungle Jim's even has a section for, yes, American food, wonderbread and cheese whiz. So, if you're in the Cincinati area, set aside about 3 hours, and have yourselves a ball.