I have a confession to make. The watermelon in my refrigerator right now is from California. So are the raspberries. I have barely been to the farmers market this year. Life has been so busy and off this summer that our usual weekly trips to one of our local farmers markets have not been happening.
Near the beginning of the summer I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and felt so inspired that I planned to try and eat as locally as possible this summer. I figured that at the very least with all of the farmers markets in my town I should be able to do a decent job for the summer. I was wrong because well, in order to do a good job eating locally by shopping at farmers markets you have to go to them.
Last year we had piles of veggies and fruits covering our kitchen counters after our weekly market trip. These piles of beautiful food were supplemented by the piles of beautiful food coming out of our small garden. It was great.
So what is the difference between this summer and last? Well I guess the biggest difference is the lack of Luke around here. It doesn’t take nearly as much food to feed the family when Luke is gone. Our shopping routine and meal planning have been thrown out the window a lot of weeks because of hectic schedules and randomness has ensued. My cooking has been thrown, as I am sure you have noticed from the lack of recipes posted here.
I am hopping to get my butt into gear and get into the farmers market groove this weekend. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I really was inspired to feed my family healthy locally produced foods and I would definitely recommend the book to those of you who care about what you feed your family. It makes sense to me that local foods are the way to go for health, environmental and economic reasons. Besides by the end of the farmers market season last year my freezer was stocked with veggies of all kinds ready and waiting to be used throughout the winter months and we all know how I feel about having a fully stocked pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
So have you been hitting up your local farmers markets and supporting locally grown veggies and produced goods and foods?
What is your favorite thing to buy at a farmers market?
Personally I love the gigantic onions and potatoes that start to show up later in the season and the juicy peaches, cherries and melons that are grown so beautifully in Colorado.
