Photo by me
When Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution was on awhile back, I watched it and became very happy that my daughter takes a packed lunch to school every day. I then watched Food, Inc. and realized that even with Little J taking her lunch to school, we still needed to make some serious changes as a family. The movie did not make me want to stop eating meat, but it did make me realize we need to be more responsible about what we decide to eat as individuals and a society.
It was really driven home for me when we visited a dairy farmer as part of Agriculture Day at Leadership Frederick County. You can read the recap post here. What it all comes down to is knowing the source of your food and eating as local as possible. We need to keep our food purchases local to not only be healthier, but also to protect the food chain. If you want to know what I mean by protecting the food chain, read this.
I’m not trying to scare anyone or be a downer and become some activist, but I do think we need to not take what we purchase at grocery stores at face value. I have started to read food labels much more and am totally shocked by what I see. High fructose corn syrup in hot dog rolls?? Really? Yikes.
Of course, we can’t make everything at home, grow it ourselves, or buy everything local due to expense and accessibility, but it is something that I am committing my family to as much as possible. I have joined a CSA which quite frankly scares me more than just a little bit. There are a lot of vegetables that I have no idea what to do with, but am ready for the challenge. I plan on learning how to make more things on my own and preserve things for the winter months.
Also we will be exploring all the great resources we have locally for getting food from the farm to the plate as much as possible. So while I will still be blogging about all the goodies I like to cook and bake, I hope to provide information on local food as I explore all of our options. I hope that you will share with me hints and recipes to make this all a little easier ;-)
Tell me your favorite source for local meats, veggies, fruit, dairy, etc.?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Two words: Hedgeapple Farms
Andy, thanks for the great lead-in. That’s going to be my next post. Tried their beef for the first time a few weeks ago and feel in love.
I’ve wanted to try Hedgapple Farms; I’m just so intimidated by the little house. Silly me!
I do love the West Frederick Farmers Market, though I have many up my way that I have yet to check out. I do Catoctin Mountain Orchard for my fruits and some veggies. I do love me some Shuff’s Meat Market, as back woods as that is, too. The people are awesome, though, getting to know everyone.
I’ve always wanted to try a CSA but I get intimidated, too. My mother belonged to one where we would go to the farm itself and get our share of items. I worry about going to someone’s house and getting my share. Silly, I know.
I’m a folklorist by nature; I love to learn and study and understand people by learning their daily actions and activities. I love learning about different sub cultures in a larger culture and how each one is responsive to the other. Living in Frederick County is an amazing opportunity to support local agriculture. If I’m going to spend money on food, why not give it to the local farmer and help him support his family? I’d prefer that over paying for something organic that was grown in Peru. The price includes the cost of airline fuel and gas for the truck to get it to my store. What’s the carbon print for all that cost? Not really worth it, in my opinion.
I have yet to see Food, Inc. Want to, just not sure when the best time for that is.
Just saw Food, Inc. the night before last. The notion that the hundreds of brands in the grocery store actually represent only 5 companies is pretty amazing. Also, that processed foods are not really the value they appear to be on the grocer’s shelf when you consider the government subsidies, etc. is interesting to say the least. Several years ago, I read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver and recommend it highly. Her website has some fine resources on eating local and finding farms, etc. I heard somewhere that there will be another farmer’s market on Wednesdays beginning in June next to Old Towne Tavern on Market. I hope that’s true because I can’t get to the other one. Thanks for the article above and have a great day!