What Is There to Eat in the Big Apple? May 13, 2015

Students in Level 2 have been talking and writing about the differences between organic and regular produce, locally-grown and well-traveled fruit and vegetables.

Class discussion brings about many opinions on the quality and expense of food to be found in New York City.  Ordinary supermarkets provide a large variety of produce from many parts of the world, but is this type of produce free of chemical preservatives?  Then there are “natural foods” stores which claim to have more healthful selections at greater expense.

Many New Yorkers shop at the Farmers’ Market in Manhattan’s Union Square to buy locally-grown produce.  Some students say that they have also found fresh, tasty items that are brought to the city from farms in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Long Island, available at a number of other similar markets throughout the five boroughs of NYC.

In this northeastern part of North America, farm vegetables are more readily obtainable from June until September.  New York State is famous for its apples, especially fresh and tasty in early autumn.  Do you think that there is any connection here with  “The Big Apple,” one of NYC’s nicknames?

                Farmers’ market food can be more expensive than what you would find in a supermarket.  However, the freshness and overall quality of local food here are usually superior to that of fruits and vegetables that have been shipped from countries halfway around the world, or even from Florida and California.

With study of this topic, new words and phrases were added to the students’ vocabulary:  local, pollute, environment, it’s worth it, in season, out of season, and many more.

 New York English Academy