Eat Local!

You know every so often I have to get my plug in about eating local. So I thought today would be perfect after the wonderful meal we had last night.

The collards which I canned were from either our garden. I knew all that hard work & time canning collards would pay off! The pork chops were from Wild Turkey Farms and the watermelon from Twin Oaks Farm.

I also made zucchini bread- the zucchini was given to me by someone at work who grew it in his garden. I had enough leftover to shred & freeze for some more zucchini bread later.

It's so easy to eat local.

Visit your local Farmer's Market or road side stands that you see.

But do remember that not every Farmer's Market is a growers only market. Ask the farmer if the item was grown on their farm.

Also, at your grocery store question where the fruits & vegetables come from. At the grocery store I shop at they have signs promoting "locally grown" so I asked what is local? Is it within the county, within the state??? Locally grown to them is within 6 hours of their warehouse. Their warehouse is in Matthews, North Carolina, so local could be South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia...not so local if you ask me!

Having worked at 2 different Farmer's Markets I find that you develop a relationship with your customers. More and more people are becoming concerned about where their food is coming from. Which is a good thing. We had a couple come to the farm on Monday evening to help process chickens. They came because they wanted to, because they were interested in the process and we as farmers appreciate that!

I'm not perfect there are still things that I buy out of convenience...chips, cookies, soups, broth, etc. but I have tried to not waste a lot either.

I try to freeze and can whenever possible. Our latest project is to make our own cornmeal.....I'll report on that later.

There always seems to be something that I can save in some way:

We were blessed with lots of basil- I made more pesto than we will ever need!

I have been freezing our leftover coffee in ice cube trays so we can make our own iced coffee.

If you read this blog you know I tried to dehydrate turnips (so everything doesn't always work).

So there is my eat local speech we're good for a couple of months & then I'll remind you again! If you have some ideas to share with me please do!!