How do you eat locally in the winter?
How do you eat locally in the winter? The answer may surprise you. If you live far enough north that winter time ends the normal growing season, the choices are going to be considerably more limited than if you live in California, southern Florida, or, say, Costa Rica. But you may be surprised to find out that there generally are crops available late in the fall and early in the spring.
The best place to find these? Your local farmer’s market, friendly local farms, or a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) cooperative. Our local CSA has just offered an extension of the summer CSA fruits and vegetables program into the middle of December. Of course, the vegetables offered are mainly tubers and root vegetables—carrots, rudabagas, cabbage, several varieties of potatoes and sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, winter squash and winter greens such as kale, chard, bok choy, spinach, mustard, and collard greens. There are more.
So if you haven’t yet tried joining a CSA, you might want to look into it. Our list of Useful Links is on the left sidebar, maybe about 1/3 the distance down the page. There, at the top of the list you will find Eating Locally, which is a link for the site Local Harvest. (We first wrote about it here.) If you are interested in eating locally (and you should be!) this is your site. You can search for local farms, farmers markets and CSAs, even for yarns and fleece for knitting, crocheting and spinning projects!
If you need a bit of convincing, read our original story and watch the video below, which will give you some motivation for seeking out local harvests. Remember that fresh produce in your supermarket travels an average 1,500 to 2,000 miles—and that’s not even necessarily organic. Organic food is not just about eating what’s healthier for your body, it’s also about what’s healthier for the planet. Sustainability is key. All else being equal, sustainable agriculture is local agriculture.
You might also like:
- USDA blames Canadian firm for E. coli outbreak
- A few words from Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- NAIS discussion with Paul Griepentrog on blogtalkradio
- Pneumonic plague update
- Factory farming is key to swine flu epidemic
The Big Picture (beyond our site):
- Battle Against Sugar Cravings Step 2: Keep a Food Journal
- Thanks To All My Guest Posters Last Week.
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 163.
- Organic Is Just Another Word For "Old-Fashioned".
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