In California, we are blessed to have farmers markets year round. Because of our mediterranean climate, a huge diversity of fruits and vegetables are able to be grown in all of the different microclimates available.

A couple years back I distinctly remember an older Vietnamese couple, probably around my parents age at the local farmers market.

I’m the type of person who listens in on all the conversations around me, and recall them pointing to every fruit and vegetable and say in Vietnamese, “wow that is really expensive!” And it is true compared to a commercial grocery chain farmers markets are more expensive.

In the following weeks, I saw them and they would still complain produce was expensive, but they kept showing up. For whatever reason Sundays was their time to stroll the markets even though they didn’t buy anything.

As time passed, I still saw them every couple of weeks. The chatter of talking about something was too expensive eventually transformed to them buying a small bag of fruit. I was kind of surprised honestly that they actually bought something.

In sequential visits, I began to see them transform slowly. They were always pretty shy and kept to themselves. But in one of the weeks, I saw them ask the farmer on how to cook a particular vegetable. Asking someone for help implies you are humbling yourself to learn more about a fruit a vegetable you may have never seen.

I think food habits are really one of the hardest things to change for all of us. We grow ingrained with preferences of things we like and don’t like. Sometimes our food pickiness comes from our parents, sometimes it is caused by a bad experience with a particular type of food.

I saw the older Vietnamese couple a few weeks ago, and they have pretty much transformed to your hippie people who rave about how good this fruit or this vegetable is.

This leads me to believe if an old Vietnamese couple can change, any of us can change.

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