As you all now know, the St. Albert Farmer’s Market opened this past weekend. It was the highlight of the city, with everyone excited to go and check it out. Or so I thought. Apparently this was almost everyone. In the latest issue of the St. Albert Gazette, out today, there is a lovely letter to the editor, entitled Market not family friendly.
Now, it’s a farmer’s market. Before reading the letter I wouldn’t really know why this person thought that the market wasn’t suitable for families. It’s a fun thing to do, you learn things with all of the different booths, there are friendly people everywhere, and there is tons to see. To me, there isn’t really anything to be unhappy about. Apparently I thought wrong.
This writer had a couple of grievances. The first is that the market is outdoors and it was too hot. Apparently the heat was “due to the negligence of the organizers of the market.” As they failed to provide “properly shaded areas”, this woman’s child suffered from sun stroke.
The second issue this woman had with the market was that it was outdoors and people were subjected to seasonal allergy triggers. Really?? Don’t you kind of figure that when you’re going to an outdoor event that if you suffer from seasonal allergies you might want to plan ahead? Take an allergy pill?
This woman is now urging the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce to make the farmer’s market an indoor event. Now, I don’t know about anybody else, but for me part of the attraction of a farmer’s market is that it is outdoors. I enjoy walking around in the fresh air and checking out all of the booths. If this event were indoors it would get awfully stuffy and crowded, and wouldn’t have the same atmosphere.
The final problem this woman found with the farmer’s market was that it is not a nut free environment. Apparently her child grabbed a sample of a baked good and was about to pop it in his mouth, only to be stopped by his mother with her “vigilant eye.” Her son suffers from a very serious nut allergy, and she was enraged that her son had come so close to ingesting nuts.
So not only does she want the farmer’s market to be indoors, but she would like it to be a strict no nut facility. Now, as an allergy sufferer I fully understand the seriousness of any type of allergy. They are awful to have, and even more awful when you accidentally ingest an allergen. And I know that nut allergies can be extremely dangerous, even deadly. My niece has a classmate who has such an extreme nut allergy that nobody in the class can bring anything with nuts in it to school, or even have nuts or peanut butter for breakfast. It can be a very serious allergy. But at the same time, wouldn’t this chid know that he is allergic to nuts? Wouldn’t he have been told repeatedly by his mother not to eat something without checking with her because it may have nuts in it?
As the farmer’s market is an outdoor, open air event it would be almost impossible to make it a nut free facility. People would have to be checked on the way in to make sure they weren’t carrying anything with nuts in it, the people with booths of baked goods wouldn’t be able to sell anything with nuts in them and Heaven forbid anybody have a booth selling peanut butter. For this woman to request that the farmer’s market be made a nut free environment is a little extreme. Instead, how about she instill in her son (because it apparently hasn’t already been done) that he check with her before he eat anything given to him by someone else.
To me it seems that the easiest way to fix this problem is to just make sure your child is aware of the fact that they are allergic to some things and that they can not eat everything they would like to. And this goes for all allergens. Train your children to ask before they eat. Train yourself. That five seconds it takes to ask could go a long way, and in turn, can save a lot of frustration later on.
Frustrations like trying to make a public farmer’s market nut free. Which just isn’t feasible.
