How much were the plump, shiny, new cucumbers (burp!); I'm afraid to ask?

The farmer's market at the People's Co-op on SE 20th is open today until at least 7PM.

You can get nice BC hothouse tomatoes and decent cukes a lot cheaper at Winco. In fact, you can get almost everything cheaper at Winco. I've never understood everyone's fascination with Whole Wallet, Wild Bucks, and others of that ilk. Believe me, I've never been convinced of the health values of "organic", nor of the taste differences. I like growing my own tomatoes, beans, and peas but wouldn't pay the inflated price for someone else's corporate home grown products. Extortion I say.

actually, Jack, cukes are about the easiest thing to grow around here - just wait 'til the soil is a little warmer and plug in those seeds.

foolproof and delicious

try "amira" or good old "straight eight"

for tomatoes; "early girl", "roma" & "sweet 100" - "brandywine" if you've got the room a good south-facing wall.

dig it

"mrfearless",

that's a big topic. start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food

in a nutshell, using up the oil to transport your food long distances is bad. relying on distant lands to supplpy your basic food needs (most American states do) is very bad--imagine what happens if those sources go bad. you have no food--and you can't wait to eat while the food grows.

and, local food supports the local economy. since it's usually smaller scale, it's usually organic or nearly so.

corporate, single-crop farming is the main reason we're losing topsoil, losing family farms every year, and relying more and more on heavy-duty chemicals and genetically modified foods just to live.

Farmers markets are the way to go. If you can't get to one, mrfearless47 is right on about Winco. EVERYTHING is cheaper. Compare their prices to Satanway or Freddys. They actually have a great selection of produce.