I found a great blog post on this, and thought I would share. I think that for many of us, this is obvious – but for others it means a complete shift in thinking. Please share your resources on this topic – I would love to collect them in one place!

Check it out: Why Buy Local Foods?

Home-canned pickles. Photo credit: firefly64's Flickr photostream

I’ve been gardening for about 15 years now, but didn’t really have much of a kitchen garden until a couple of years ago.  Last year, my family moved into a new house with a blank slate for a yard, which gave me the opportunity to imagine all the possibilities and just how big my kitchen garden could get.

As of this spring, I have about 400 square feet dedicated to food, which is my largest garden yet. I created all this space, as well as my surrounding flower beds myself, most of it last year after we moved in.  Needless to say, I have invested hundreds of hours in creating this little botanical utopia.  I’m not even going to stop and calculate how much money I’ve spent on seeds, plants, dirt, mulch, and more.

I love gardening.  I believe in gardening and its positive impact on my health, my family’s health, and our environment.  Nothing pleases me more than to walk outside on a July afternoon and pick veggies and herbs for our dinner.  Once October rolls around and my  garden stops producing, I miss having fresh tomatoes and basil and more.

My husband is on board with all this too — he benefits from all the great produce, but also from having less yard to mow, and he believes in gardening for the same reasons I do.  Like me, he loves having a freezer and pantry full of last summer’s bounty.  However, last week, he said something that stopped me in my tracks and which I have been thinking about ever since.

I was telling my husband about my plans for something in the garden — canning pickles this summer — and he commented, “Why bother?  It’s less expensive to just buy them at the store.”

Why bother? That really stuck with me and I’ve been pondering it for days, wondering if what I’m doing is really worth the time and effort.

The answer is a resounding YES.  Growing my own food and eating locally and seasonally IS worth the effort.  Cooking from scratch and preserving the bounty of my garden means that my family eats better throughout the year.  Our food doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup and other additives, plus home-cooked food using fresh ingredients just tastes better.

As for those pickles, it costs me almost nothing to plant the cucumbers, dill, and garlic I’ll need for dill pickles.  Vinegar is cheap too.  One day in July or August, I’ll find that I have too many cucumbers on hand, so I’ll pull out some jars, various ingredients, and my canner and I’ll whip up a batch of pickles, which should cover all the cook-outs and barbecue dinners my family will have in the next year.

When I can my own pickles — or make spaghetti sauce or chicken broth or bread crumbs — I control what ingredients are used.  I know that my food doesn’t contain crap that I don’t want my family to eat.  I know that my cucumbers, garlic, and dill will be organic, because that’s how I garden.  I know that my pickles won’t contain any ingredients that I don’t want in them.

Yes, there is a cost to my time to make the pickles and preserve, but that doesn’t concern me because I’m making them because I want to — because I want to bite into one next winter and remember the bounty of Summer 2010.

Looking  for resources to help make it easy to find and purchase local food at competitive prices? Check out these resources below to get started. You will be surprised at how easy it is. One thing I am planning is to split the cost of a membership with a neighbor. Check it out:

Central VA

Dominion Harvest
A Richmond, Virginia area food club where you can order locally produced fruit, vegetables and dairy and have it delivered direct to your home.

Horse and Buggy Produce
A Charlottesville area food cooperative that delivers local produce, dairy, meat, fish, baked goods and more. Looks like they deliver to drop-off areas in Richmond, Charlottesville, Lynchburg and Glenmore.

Northern Virginia

Arganic Farm Club
I just found out about this – and am really tempted to join. They provide delivery to my doorstep of a wide variety of locally produced and sustainable products, including meats, ice cream, produce and more. Their prices are very competitive and is well-worth investigating. They currently serve DC, as well as Alexandria and Arlington in Virginia and Silver Spring, Mount Rainier, Takoma Park and Bethesda in Maryland and plan to expand their delivery area every week.

Farm Buyers Club
Serves a variety of locations in Northern Virginia, Loudoun and more – delivers local produce and other products to area drop-off locations.

Virginia (all)

Virginia Farm Bureau’s Save our Food project
A comprehensive listing of Virginia farmers markets, CSA’s and Restaurants that serve local food – another great cause to support: Follow them on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, join their group on LinkedIn

Buy Fresh Buy Local of Virginia
They have an online directory of where to purchase products in Virginia – based on what you are looking for. On top of that, they are a great cause to support.

National Resources

PickYourOwn.org
An online directory pick your own farms and orchards throughout the US – by state. Not only a great resource for fresh products, but a great experience for your friends and family.

Local Harvest
Probably one of the best resources online, Local Harvest has comprehensive listings of CSA’s, Farmers Markets, and local producers for every state.

March 20 was the one-year anniversary of  the White House Kitchen Garden, and Mrs. Obama’s project continues inspire us all – as well as her campaign for health and fresh, local food.

I recently read a post on the small winter  harvest from the garden – an amazing story of the garden that survived Snowmaggedon 2010 – one of the worst winter storms in history. In spite of the harsh winter weather, the garden produced about 50lbs of produce, according to Sam Kass – White House assistant chef and Food Initiative Coordinator. Watch as he tells the story in this video:

Being that I am constantly struggling to grow anything beyond some simple herbs on my deck, it is stories like this that give me hope.

I live in a modest townhome in extreme suburbia and this year I am working on both a deck garden and a few small garden beds in my back yard. My whole family is involved from choosing what we are growing, to building the raised beds, to planting the seedlings – and eventually nurturing the plants and harvesting the bounty. There are more lessons in this process that can be counted – and the time, experience, and satisfaction is (and will be) great.

No matter where you live – whether it is an urban, suburban, or a rural setting, I urge you to grow some of your own food. Trust me, if I can do this – anyone can.

5 resources to get you thinking – and even started on your path:

1. Proof you can grow your food anywhere – from Yahoo Green
2. Learn what a suburban garden IS and IS NOT – Garden Rant
3. Ordering seeds – Seeds of Change
4. Don’t have anywhere to plant? Start or participate in a community garden – American Community Gardening Association
5. Get an edible schoolyard started at one of your local schools – The Edible Schoolyard

Getting ourselves more connected with where our food comes from, celebrating the ‘fruits’ or our labor (literally), enjoying the exquisite flavor of food that travels from our backyard to our plate, making a ritual with our families and communities to prepare and enjoy meals together are only a few reasons to do this.

Please share your ideas, reasons, rants and plans here!

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been in the news a lot lately, including the not-so-surprising revelation just last week that it is worse for your health than plain old sugar.

HFCS is bad stuff, make no mistake about it.  Research is showing that it has a number of detrimental affects on humans, including increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, hypertension, and more.  HFCS can mess up your body in ways you never thought possible.  Stay away from the stuff.

HFCS is a sneaky insidious ingredient that shows up in pretty much every food produced, even when you wouldn’t expect it.  I am hyper-vigilant about not bringing food with HFCS into my house, yet a search of my pantry and fridge a few minutes ago showed that some had slithered in.  Ignoring for a moment my children’s leftover Halloween candy (which I should probably throw away at this point), let’s look at what I found — wheat crackers, canned beans, barbecue sauce, and hot dog relish (my husband and I have no idea where that came from).

A few places where you would expect to find HFCS in my kitchen, but won’t:  sodas, popsicles, ketchup, jam, and cereal.  Go into any conventional grocery store and those foods will have HFCS in them, but I’ve intentionally sought out alternatives without it.

Sodas have been a particular thorn in my side.  I don’t drink them very often — maybe once or twice a month — but when I do I really like Coke, which is sweetened with HFCS.  In Canada and Europe, Cokes are sweetened with sugar and believe me, you CAN tell a difference in the flavor.  This time of year, it’s possible to find sugar-sweetened Cokes in the grocery store — in the kosher foods section — otherwise, I’d have to ask a friend send them from Canada, which is just not worth the effort.

My daughters like root beer or creme soda with their Friday night pizza, which led to a two-year (and continuing) search for options without HFCS.  There used to be a great root beer produced right here in Virginia; unfortunately, it appears to be no longer available.  I also found a creme soda that is made by a family-owned company and which used to be carried by Whole Foods, but no longer is.  Luckily, World Market has it.  They sell it by the individual bottles and their inventory is spotty, so I asked the store manager to order a case of it for me, which should last us a few months.  Yes, it’s a lot more expensive than regular sodas, but since my family uses them up at the rate of two every Friday, I’m not going to sweat the extra cost.

But what about the average family that’s struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford to pay more for foods that don’t have lab-produced crap in them?  That’s the challenge, because until Americans throw a huge national hissy fit and say, “We’re not eating this garbage anymore,” the industrial food companies will continue to sneak HFCS and other corn products into foods where they have no business being.

So what does all this have to do with eating locally?

If you eat local foods, the chance that they’ll contain HFCS drops dramatically.  A jar of jam bought at Kroger or Giant is going to have HFCS in it; whereas homemade jam from the farmers’ market will not.  Little Debbie Snack Cakes and Sara Lee products have HFCS in them (not to mention a number of other sneaky corn products), but treats purchased from local bakeries will not.

Also, cook your own foods, so that you know what’s in there.  And by cooking, I mean from scratch, not from a box.  I made brownies this weekend and they were every bit as easy as a boxed mix, but much, much tastier.  (And now gone, as my daughters agreed and consumed every crumb over the course of three days.)

Finally, educate yourself.  Read any of Michael Pollan‘s books and then rent the DVD King Corn to get a really good look at corn in America.  After that, start reading labels when you go to the grocery store.  You’ll be amazed at what you find.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution movement has become the tipping point for regular Americans on food consciousness, health, and the impact that our food habits have on our children and communities. Starting with his food revolution in the UK, then the TED Prize, a series of fabulous books, and now a prime-time TV show on ABC – Jamie is taking on what is probably the most pressing health and economic issue facing Americans today: FOOD.

His new show premieres in a 2-hour event tonight (March 26) (check program times here), the first hour is already available to watch on ABC’s site and a sneak peek aired this past Sunday. Here is the trailer:

It is not enough for us to simply sit on the couch, watch the show and agree with him. All of us need to take responsibility and do something about it.

10 things to do right now:

1. Watch the show this evening
2. View the Jamie Oliver TED Prize Video – and learn about his ‘One Wish’
3. Learn about what he did for the school lunch system in the UK
4. Sign the petition to improve school food and save cooking skills
5. Teach your kids, and your community about where you food comes from. Learn more about the Slow Food Movement.
6. Shop 1st at your local farmers market – get all of your main food from your local farmer. Find yours through Local Harvest.
7. Join a CSA with some neighbors and have fresh fruit, veggies, milk, eggs and meat delivered to your doorstep or in your neighborhood – direct from the farm!
8. Commit to cooking fresh, home-made meals several times per week with your family. Make it part of your family-time.  Teach your kids to cook!
9. Grow some of your own food. Even in urban settings this is possible.
10. Spread the word and share ideas with others, tell 10 friends. Use your blog, facebook, LinkedIn, even have a party.

If you have other ideas – please share!

The Local Food Hub is looking for a few good gardeners.

Actually, make that a LOT of good gardeners.

Join them in their efforts to provide fresh local fruits and veggies to those those in need.

How?

Just Plant a Row for the Hungry.

All you have to do is plant those veggies — the Local Food Hub will take care of the rest when it’s time to harvest.

It might not look like much now, but in a few weeks I'll have lots of lettuce to share.

Want to help?  Email emily@localfoodhub.org.

Don’t have space for a garden? The Local Food Hub could still use your help getting the word out, gathering resources, and coordinating logistics.  Join the Plant a Row for the Hungry Committee.  Email Emily at the address above.

Interested in learning more about how to cook and eat locally AND do this on a budget?

Then plan to attend Home for Dinner: Local Food Workshop, which is being offered by the City of Charlottesville this Saturday, March 20 from from 10 a. m. to 1 p.m. at Tonsler Rec Center.

Call 970-3260 or visit the city’s website to register online for workshop #240528.

Door prizes will be from Rebecca’s Natural Food, Integral Yoga Foods, and Whole Foods.  Cooking demonstration and tasting compliments of L’etoile.  All participants will receive a Buy Fresh, Buy Local bumper sticker!

Beautiful early morning skies over the Charlottesville City Market.

locavore — n. A person who attempts to eat only foods grown locally.

A hot topic these days is eating locally — instead of eating foods that were shipped from around the world, locavores seek out the local options.  Eating local food has a number of environmental benefits, not to mention the positive act of supporting small family farms.   By buying local, you are supporting the farmers and other vendors you meet at the farmers’ market, as well as keeping your food dollars in your community. When you buy local, your money isn’t being spent on the trucks and gas that were used to haul in foods from other parts of the country.

Eating local makes a lot of sense.  After all, why buy apples that were shipped to Virginia from the west coast or beyond when we have dozens of orchards right here in our home state?

One of my favorite books is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. For one year, Kingsolver and her family ate only local foods in season. They either grew the foods themselves or purchased them from local people. That also meant that they gave up M&Ms, soda, chips, and most other junk foods.  Month by month, the reader learns how the family ate foods that were in season or had been stored for later use. One surprise for them was that it was actually harder to feed themselves early in the summer than in the winter. Read the book to find out why.

Charlottesville's farmers' market is a bustling place on Saturdays.

I’ve read other books by people who limited themselves to a completely local diet, including Plenty:  Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.  While I admire their efforts, I will tell you honestly that my husband and I have decided that it’s unlikely we could be quite as dedicated to the cause.  We do the best that we can, but we are not striving for perfection.

We get all of our meat and poultry from local farms, most of our eggs are local, and during the summer we’re nearly perfect with vegetables and fruits.  Actually, much of our produce is grown 20 feet from our back door, so it doesn’t get any more local than that.

We also try to get things like pasta, tortilla chips, and bread locally too.  Luckily, we don’t eat a lot of pre-packaged foods and tend to cook mostly from scratch, so it’s not like I need a local source for Oreos.  (Although my children might beg to differ.)  That said, I personally am not going to give up chocolate, which we all know doesn’t grow in Virginia.  And I have two daughters whom I’m not  going to make give up some of their favorite occasional treats.

I think that being a locavore has three main parts:

• Eating seasonally as much as possible.
• Cooking more and eating less junk food.
• Buying local foods — again, as with eating seasonally — as much as possible and reasonable.

Then there’s the issue of cost.  The fact is, some things cost more when you buy locally.  Just this morning, I was at Whole Foods debating over buffalo mozzarella cheeses — the local option cost $1.50 more per pound than the non-local option — before putting the local option in my cart.  However, I will freely admit that I also bought broccoli and clementines from California.  I want my family to eat as locally and seasonally as possible, but this is the time of year that I need to supplement with foods from warmer climates.  My cut-off point is the borders of the United States — I avoid buying international produce except on extremely rare occasions.

I don’t think that perfection should be our goal, but that we should be more aware of what’s on our plates.  I for one cannot imagine life without oranges, but obviously we can’t grow those here in Virginia.

What about you?  Are you a locavore?

Photo credits:  The Charlottesville City Market’s Facebook page.

• Distance from purchase location
• Environmental cost of production (carbon footprint)- includes things like pesticides, land use, overall process sustainability, byproducts
• Cost of delivery

• Quality of ingredients
• Number of ingredients
• How processed is the item

What do you think?