Day 7 – The Merc, Lawrence, Kansas by Diane

Tuesday, June 17: Later on Tuesday, the road took us through more beautiful Missouri land to Lawrence, Kansas, where we were last year on our Eat Well Guided Tour of America. Even though there had been heavy rains and flooding in that area of the country, we only saw swollen rivers – some were so high that trees were submerged – but there didn’t seem to be much flooding while we were driving through. Unfortunately, we just found out (this is being typed up on June 24th) that flooding has hit St. Charles, Missouri, which is where we spent our first night on our drive to Colorado. We send our best to all the farmers and residents of the affected areas in the Midwest.

We went back to Lawrence to have a short visit with Jayni Carey, who had us on her cooking show when we were in town last year. Several people had recommended we visit The Community Merc, a store in Lawrence that sells a lot of local sustainable food (and we weren’t able to visit it while on our big tour), so we planned to meet Jayni there (and to stock up on delicious healthy food for the next leg of our trip).

The Merc has been around since the 70’s – it started out as a tiny store, but in the last 3-4 years it’s grown into a proper-sized grocery store. One of the highlights of the establishment is their “Miles to the Merc” program. They have the largest selection of local produce in Lawrence, and they highlight their local produce, meat, dairy, bread, eggs, tofu, even local greeting cards, and processed food with labels that state the produce is local, and from how far away it came. For their produce, they even include the name of the farm, along with a photo of the farmers who grew it! That’s something every store in this country should be doing. And we were happy to find out that they also had a salad bar and made fresh hot and cold foods for customers also. (There are simply times when one can’t cook….)

While speaking with the meat associate at the Merc, we were told they were soon going to be selling MJ Ranch beef – MJ Ranch was one of our stops on the Eat Well Tour, so we were rather excited that the Merc was supporting such wonderful sustainable farmers. MJ Ranch raises grassfed pastured beef – we toured the ranch, including the pastures, while we were there, and we can say that the cows were content and the pastures green and luscious.

The Merc also hosts community events such as “Meat Greet and Eat,” where local producers come to the store, showcase their food, and offer samples to customers. The store also showcases a classroom and kitchen, where community cooking classes are offered for up to 30 people at a time. They also offer classes in healthy eating, ones geared toward school children, and other food-related activities. We were fortunate to be able to meet Nancy, the Director of Education and Outreach for the store, who gave us copies of one of the Merc’s cookbooks.

Because we had to drive through almost all of Kansas to get to Boulder in time, we had little time left at the store, though we made sure to stock up on salads, prepared food, and other healthy snacks for the trip. Unfortunately, we came to the conclusion on this trip that sometimes it can be difficult to find healthy food on the road, so a way around that is to take healthy snacks from home. If you’re flying, then driving, and will be on the road for a while, buying a cooler might be worth the $20 or so investment. (And rather than throw it out at the end of your trip, either leave it for housekeeping staff at your hotel or find a food bank or local group to drop it off with.) And we here at Sustainable Table and the Eat Well Guide will continue to search for local sustainable outlets and provide them for you through our online sustainable food guide.

Article Tag(s): sustainable table, lawrence, kansas, community mercantile, the merc

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