Farmers markets vary greatly. To be certified 100% organic is not cheap and requires a lot of extra work for any size farm. Many farmers are close to that level, but few can remain 100% organic, only because the land acreage can vary. In the case of the item you mentioned, it could be mentioned in the ingredients, then also described as an anti-foam agent. I doubt if most people would even bother to look at the ingredients list. As mentioned, its use has been for many years by the commerrcial industry and it will not affect taste, smell or any other normal character for any jellys or jams. Refined sugar, in its normal process, requires many nasty chemicals (sulfur, lime) to get it to the white granulated stage we see in stores. If all the chemicals were mentioned in sugar manufacture and refining, it would be a long list, and probably scare off most anyone. I see no degradation of properly home canned products. If I were to throw out my stuff dating back 2 years, that would wipe out all my tomatoes, most of the pickles, and 90% of my jams and jellies. Well over 200 jars in total. I am not about to do that with my canned foods as they are as good today as the day they were made. The ONLY issues are darkening color for some fruits, and cukes getting softer after that length of time. In either case, they are not poison, and not unappetizing to me. If we followed the rules of 6 months, we would have to do all our canning and date each and every jar, then toss them out if the dates went past 6 months. Way too impractcal. Who can really say what an expiration date can mean. Many commercial products contain so many 'stablizers' and preservatives, they could last a century. I just cooked up a 2 pound bag of shrimp that has been double bagged in my freezer since 2004. It has no freezer burn or any loss the flavor or texture. Even after I compared it with some shrimp I just bought and also cooked up seperately. Properly packaged, even frozen foods can last a long time. Around here, there are no farmers markets for many miles, so my summer garden sales and garage sales do very little business.

The french eurodib is my favorite one. Yardsale. Don't think i would pay retail. Many lightweight ones available. I know chefs all have a favorite and often travel with one. I make trays and trays of beet chips and sweet potato chips when the harvest is plenty. They need to be perfectly and evenly thin or they do not cook or curl evenly. (the beets get a ruffled edge). Good dog training treats... I also use paper thin slices of potato for the outer edge of my pizza. An outer ring of overlapping. Keeps the edge from burning an adds a nice rustic flavor. If it was not paper thin it would not get a chance to cook along with the rest of ingredients. For fridge pickles, along with thick rings, easily done by hand, i slice cuke, onion and carrot paper thin for Cubano sandwiches with the mandolin. (Feemster-Made in India now i think. from a reviewer...) They do take a bit of skill to use. Not an out-of-the-box easy tool. If your knife skills alone are not so good, a mandolin might be equally difficult. Years ago i had a cuisinart that had a slicer that did a good job and an attachment spitting into a side bowl that was handy for large quantities. Here is a link that might be useful: feemster

Well I reviewed three books that I got out of the Library. The one I liked best was "Glorious Garnishes". I am having my children and their partners over for Labor Day and I want to try out some of the ideas on my crudite platter. I am surprised to hear about all the folks who worry about the food being touched by human hands. It never occured to me to worry about that. Geez I'd never be able to eat any crudite ever again if I did! Anyway I especially liked the little cucumber baskets they showed because they look so easy. I can fill them with veggie dip. Another book "Play With Your Food" by Joost Elffers was also good. Elffers does all the little whimsical animals with veggies. The original book I went for "Art of Garnishing" by Inja Nam was beautiful to look at but most of the flowers were pretty involved and required things like electric food slicers etc which I don't have access to. Here is a picture of the cucumber boats Here is the book cover

You may want to try thrift stores or second hand shops. They sell small appliances for a fraction of the original price. You may find a food slicer there and just use it for parts.