Working at a local market, selling local fruit and gifts with a smile ah yes, memories from about six summers ago. It was here I learned more about fresh food then ever before.

It was here I ate my first, local blueberry the size of a quarter.

Conscious eating is one of the key elements to a healthy lifestyle. With a simple concept, you are conscious of what you are eating that is, savouring each bite, knowledgeable of health benefits, and truly learning to enjoy food. I knew, as the bulbous blueberry squished in my mouth, sending my taste receptors over the roof and filling my body with vitamin C, fibre and antioxidants, that I was hooked. The delicious, fresh and flavourful taste of just-picked produce, combined with the minimal strain on the environment and preserved nutrition stemming from less travel time, won me over.

Luckily, most communities are equipped with a local farmers market or two. Your visit, no doubt, will be a sensory overload, as you inhale the wafting aromas of ripe berries, fresh-baked breads, newly bundled flowers and international cuisines; your eyes stimulated by the beautiful, colourful produce; and your ears picking up the early-morning banter, hustle and bustle.

Early Spring is a perfect time to explore the tastes that the market has to offer.

There is a healthy-eating mantra that walks hand-in-hand with conscious eating, and that is based on whole, unprocessed foods that thrive with colour. In other words, the more colour-diverse your plate is, the more nutritionally rounded your meal is. In conscious eating, we sample with our others senses before the food reaches our lips, and a vibrant combination of reds, purples, greens and yellow undoubtedly preps our salivary glands for tastes to come.

Using these rules of thumb variety, fresh, whole foods, and colour will ensure nutritional and tasty foods waiting to be experienced. These dishes highlight some of the market goodness available now, with the benefits of eating local, eating healthy, and, well, eating deliciously.

Enjoy whats up and coming, with a simple grilled zucchini stuffed with a myriad of fresh vegetables. The mish-mash of carrots, celery, garlic, onions and zucchini makes for a colourful array of vegetables providing optimal amounts of vitamins and nutrients, highlighting fibre, and vitamin C. Not only that, but we mustnt forget the beta-carotene of carrots, which converts to vitamin A in our body, and the cancer-fighting prevention of garlic and onions. Lemon contains additional antioxidant compounds and the gingerols found in fresh ginger have been proven to help with digestion and nausea. Almonds are a nutrient-dense powerhouse, rich in fibre, protein, calcium, antioxidants, magnesium and vitamin E.

Grilled Zucchini Stuffed with Almond Pate

(vegan and gluten-free)

1 cup (250 mL) almonds

1 tablespoon (15 mL) fresh ginger 2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

2 celery stalks, cut in chunks

1 small red onion, peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup zucchini innards

2 tablespoons  olive oil juice of 1 small lemon 4 large zucchini

1. Using a melon baller, remove the inside of four zucchini, creating a hollowed zucchini tube. Reserve one cup of innards and save the rest for another recipe (soup, loaves, or salads).

2. In a food processor, process almonds until they are finely ground. Put in bowl.

3. Pulse remaining ingredients in processor, adding olive oil and lemon juice at the end, once vegetables are finely ground into a smooth mixture.

4. Stir together with almonds.

5. Preheat grill to medium-low heat, and grill zucchini on all sides, about five minutes. Let cool slightly and stuff with pate mixture.

6. Alternatively, do not grill zucchini and enjoy raw, or serve pate with crackers, fresh vegetables, or atop a bed of greens.

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