Showing your support for the small farmers here! Translated…
Yesterday, I’d bought some produce with the sour-faced man again, because the smiley grandma who’d sold the produce next to his bicycle, stopped showing up this season.
The sour-faced man sold the exact same items as the smiley grandma, and, if I’d wanted to buy it from her because the produce tasted good, a couple of days from when I bought it, I can’t, find it anymore—perhaps, it’s because they’re, smaller farmers, the vegetable gardens that they have may be smaller than they are, so, whatever it was they’d harvested, that was, what they’d sold; I’m guessing, that their “planting plans” are probably related what they liked to see on their supper tables, instead of the market economy. But, the elderly man’s food was odd, they’re, smaller in size, and maybe, this made the calculating housewives felt, that it’s more expensive, that is why he’d not gotten as much business compared to the elderly women who’d set up shop alongside him.
But, the elderly man’s smaller services are just right for me, the same price for a bundle, I’d bought from another stand, and, the produce withered and went bad after I’d cooked three meals of, but, I don’t have this problem when I bought from the middle aged man. And, the size of the produce being small wasn’t from how it wasn’t grown well, but because he’d, harvested them before they were full-grown, which made them especially young.
like this??? 
all from different farmers, who’d come to the marektplace to sell what they’d harvested, photo from online…
I’d bought the mulberries and the cabbages from him. Because I’d worried that the cabbages I’d bought may be planted on the hillside that’s destroyed the natural environment, that’s why I’d not bought cabbages for a long time, that day, I’d, stared at his bicycle a long time, calculated inside of my mind: using the market as the center, then, I’d believed, that the man couldn’t be so strong in his legs, could’ve peddled his bike from high up in the mountains, I’d deducted that his cabbages must’ve been grown from around here somewhere, and so, I’d, made a fist, “Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I can buy it!”
And, although the cabbage is smaller, but, there are, map like patterns of bug bites on the leaves, but, the crisp is just as good, and, as I brought it home, even my cat, who is a picky eater, loved it.
Then, I’d gone to the mushroom farmer I’d known, and, before I’d asked her for some mushrooms, she’d given me a spoonful of loquat.
buying from the farmers themselves, skipping the merchants who are middlemen…photo from online…
It was the harvest season for the fruit, the mushroom grower harvested her own fruit, and because she’d only planted them for “fun”, she’d grown very little, and they’d looked smaller compared to what was being sold by others, then, she’d, made them into a cough medicine instead.
And this was the very first time I wasn’t sick and had the syrup, and, the syrup made with the malt was quite weird, other than having the flesh of the fruit, and ginger, there wasn’t any, syrup at all. My mushroom farmer friend told me, that the syrup didn’t have any preservatives, that it’s best I finish the syrup in fifteen days; and, although it wasn’t easy to carry, without an alternative option other than plastic, she’d insisted on jarring the syrup in glass jars, and that after I’d finished, I could return the jars for a refund.
In order to commend her for being environmentally friendly, I’d bought a jar. “Is it weird, that I’m not coughing, but I’d eaten the syrup?” as I thought, I’d made the conclusions: oh who cares, it’s my silent rebellion against a world of PM2.5 then! And because it didn’t have any preservative, for the following two weeks, I’d needed to, scoop out the syrup to “chew” on.
This reminded me, as we were tested for the meaning of idioms as children, the instructor would verbally call out the idioms for the students to write down the definitions. Back then I was quite rebellious, I’d insisted on writing “mysterious” into “mysterism”, then, made my own explained definitions, “Don’t say that someone is weird”, and, my teacher actually gave me credit for it (thanks teacher), I couldn’t have imagined, that the idiom I’d made up back in my elementary years could come in handy on this very day!
And so, this, is what this person is doing, to show support to the small farmers, and, the vegetable and fruits these smaller farmers sold are homegrown, and so, there’s, less likely, that the items they brought to the market places contained pesticides, and, the portions are smaller, which fitted to some of the shoppers’ needs, because they’re just, cooking for one, and didn’t need that big a bundle of vegetable, and we need to show MORE support to these individual farmers who are growing the produces organically, because unless you want to ingest a ton of pesticides into your systems, then, you would, buy more produces from these seller at your local market places.
Life, the Obstacle Course 