Today is September 1, the official end of the Eat Local Challenge.
So what did I learn?
1. I noticed more local sources of food. I live in farm country. There are lots of places that have small signs in the yard advertising produce. I just have to get up the nerve to stop. There are lots of small farm stands too. I’ve driven past them but never stopped.
2. Local in season produce is a lot cheaper than store produce. It tastes better too.
3. I tried my hand at freezing fresh produce. I really need to get a bigger freezer.
4. I’m thinking about trying a garden next year. I did it before and wasn’t very good at it but I’m more motivated now.
So what now?
I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. In fact I’ll be driving past a farm stand today that has weird hours so I’ve never been able to stop. I’m going to leave the house a little early so I can hit their open hours.
My goal was to become more aware of the local options around me. I accomplished that. I hope to keep learning about new places and sources of local food.
my daughter (non-pony-sis) is very keen on local produce and very ethically concerned. She won’t use supermarkets because they are ‘evil’. When she is home we visit the local farm shops to buy vegetables (she is vegetarian too) but I must say I find the food very expensive. I wish I could get 4 quarts of corn for 75 c 🙂 The asparagus produced all around my area, by the way, is about twice as expensive to buy as that flown in from Peru and sold in the supermarkets – crazy, isn’t it.
I do get wonderful eggs from the farm down the road though – cheaper than factory eggs – and so free range the chickens frequently run in front of my bike!