You've seen it on numerous cooking shows. The chef takes you for a tour of the big city "downtown" farmers market. You treated to visions of piles of fresh and exotic produce, newly ground spices, meats and seafood. These markets are able to supply all the various cuisine oriented restaurants in the city. During certain times of the year we have farmers markets here. Ours feature real farmers! But alas, your more able to get a tomato, zucchini or gourd than fresh cumin, fenugreek or pasilla chili pods.

No those prepackaged spices in the spice isle of the local store will not do. In our area, they could have been hanging around for a decade. Even if they were delivered last week, how long have those little jars hung out in a warehouse?

Follow up:

So where can you get those herbs and spices? Well you need to go to a spice house, online of course! I started using Rafal Spice, originally by fax/mail order. Latter they went online. Their online efforts have been a bit rocky. Initially they just had a bad, slow to load, cart problem. Lately I have noticed that their online selection has shrunk, dramatically. I will need to contact them again and order a catalog, and see if they still have the enormous variety that drew me in, originally.

Lately I have found a new place (actually Alton Brown pointed this one out). The Spice House provides me with the quality, fresh spices that I enjoyed from Rafal. And they have a wide variety available online, I so detest having to copy down all those product numbers to an order form.

With either choice, when you get your package in the mail and open it up your nose will be assaulted with the rich aromas. Nothing you will get from the store will compare with the quality of a product from a spice merchant. The variety of spices lets you reproduce those authentic tastes. After all Italian oregano, Mexican oregano, and Greek Oregano are not the same. Really!

Some tips on keeping your spices fresh.

Keep them in sealed (actual rubber seal) jars. I collected a bunch by buying a particular jelly in pint jars sold in 3 packs at Sam's Club. After a year or so your good. You could also by small mason (canning) jars. Seal them once, then a couple of drops of glue and the rings and the lids stay together. Since your not going to heat treat them the seals last longer.

Keep them in a cool dark place. Many herbs and spices react to light. Things that are cool have slower chemical reactions. If you freeze your spices, don't open the jar until they return to room temperature, otherwise condensation (right on the herb or spice) can dampen them.

Buy most things in smaller quantities, even good storage only lasts so long. There are some things that I do use a lot of. For those items I store most of it in a large jar in the basement, and keep a smaller amount in a small jar in my spice hoosier.

If you have a grinder and are willing to grind your own, whole spices last longer than pre-ground ones. Also for many Indian recipes you are supposed to roast the spices in a dry pan before grinding. I used to have a spare blade type coffee grinder, now I just use a ceramic mortar and pestle.