Fresh start to day is best way

Kristen Hamling Photo/File

Carrots, biscuits and beds make me happy, but only if they are locally made.

It has been a bugbear of mine for a long time that the food we buy in supermarkets often comes from faraway. A former client of mine used to work for a major supermarket in Australia and said that fruit and vegetables came from all over the country and often sat in fridges for up to six months before they made it to the shelves. This concerns me as I've read that once fruit and veges are picked, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality and flavour. I would much prefer my fruit and vegetables fresh from the ground of Wanganui.

You can imagine my joy when I came to Wanganui and could buy fruit and vegetables from the local Saturday market or from the farm up the road. I feel incredulous that the majority of people in Wanganui purchase their food from supermarkets rather than from local producers.

I find the markets on Saturday mornings in Wanganui to be the most uplifting start to my weekends. I feel special when Hannah greets me by name and knows my coffee order off by heart. I feel a tingling in my cells when I buy healthy fresh vegetables grown locally (including Wanganui apples that are not covered in wax - seriously why do we need shiny apples?), and I love the brief, but expansive, conversations I have with an ex-foreign exchange dealer-cum- farmer who sells the best eggs.

I try to purchase most of my food for the week at the Saturday market (pizza for dinner, fresh ham, chocolate croissants, animal biscuits for the lunchboxes, fresh eggs and on I could go). It costs me no more than shopping at the supermarket and I feel the benefits of shopping local far outweigh any inconveniences.

The market morning offers me a chance to catch up with friends, listen to music, buy interesting gifts and probably the best eat lots of delicious food. Also my skin has also never looked so good since I started buying soap from the soap man at the market.

But let's not stop at the markets. Never in my life have I ever been able to buy the quality of meat that is as cost effective as I can get now from the Wanganui East butcher. I had some exquisite butchers to choose from in Sydney (you know the kind of places that make meat look pretty) but I preferred to spend my money on a new house, than what it would cost for a month's worth of meat. I also found a fabulous furniture design and manufacturing company in Wanganui where I have purchased a beautiful new bed and if you haven't yet been to Blank Canvas then well ... I just feel really sorry for you. Service in Wanganui is the best, evidenced by a one-hour search for running shoes at SportsEdge. Staff filmed me running, not because they thought I looked fantastic, but because they wanted to find the best trainers for my broken foot, which we did eight shoes later.

Wanganui people, we have a fabulous town with some fabulous shopping. If we all started to shop local then we build business, increase employment, build community relationships, conserve energy (by reducing the amount of food that gets carted in from other places) and use less packaging.

Ultimately we are social creatures and our ability to work together and feel connected is what contributes most of all to our gutsy happiness. In my opinion, we should be shopping local to enhance our community and build relationships.

It seems that I am embracing more of my inner hippie since coming to Wanganui, living more sustainably, shopping local, caring more about protecting this beautiful country and giving my children more experiences rather than more toys. However, I stand firm on one issue, I say no to underarm hair, my inner hippie cannot embrace that one.

On that note, I look forward to chatting with you on Saturday at the market.

A registered psychologist with a Masters in Applied Psychology, Wanganui mother-of-two Kristen Hamling is studying for a PhD in positive psychology at Auckland University of Technology