How to eat locally

[kayell]

GROW YOUR OWN
That’s about as local as it gets. :-)
There is a Cooperative Extension Service office in every county in the US. They provide information on gardening (among many other things) specifically geared for your area.

Links to each states Extension Service and publications
http://hgic.clemson.edu/linksotherresources.htm#OTHER%20EXTENSION%20SERVICES

Links to each counties offices
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

If you have limited space, focus on produce that is best very fresh, like tomatoes or basil; produce that gives you the most nutritional value per square food such as spinach or other greens; or produce that is expensive to purchase fresh such as berries. Also consider which foods are easiest to produce without special skills (unless you have them, start slow and small) and which do not have pest problems likely to be difficult to control in your area.

See if your city or town has community garden plots available. http://www.communitygarden.org/links.php#Gardens
Help a friend with their garden chores in return for produce. Garden on a friend or relatives land.

Don’t buy all the goodies that the stores will try to sell you for gardening. Basic tools of a spade or spading fork, a hard-tined rake, a hoe and a trowel will suffice. Share tools with neighbors. Add organic matter to your soil from local sources. Get organic matter for free from your cities leaf recycling program, coffee grounds from the local coffee shop, your home compost pile, etc. Do shell out 5 bucks or so and have your county extension office test your soil to see if you need to add nutrients or change the pH. The Extension lab tests are much more accurate than those you do at home. They will generally recommend the most economical sources of nutrients. You can ask them to give you recommendations for organic fertilizer sources. Make sure you follow the right planting dates for your area, and grow varieties suited to your climate.

Even people with very limited space (balconies, windowsills) can grow fresh herbs or salad greens in containers. Since these are high ticket items, they are often well worth the trouble. Anyone can grow sprouts. http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/horticulture/g886.htm

BUY FROM LOCAL PRODUCERS
Farmers markets
http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm

CSAs (Community Sponsored Agriculture)
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/csastate.htm

Pick your own farms
http://www.pickyourown.org/

EAT IN SEASON
Lists of what is in season near you
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/
If your buying in a grocery store, check the origin of the produce. It is not unusual to find produce shipped across the entire continent that is also grown locally. My local grocer in SC featured WA state apples this week, while beautiful apples are grown commercially 50 miles away in NC and are at peak season.

BUY AT CO-OP STORES
Find one near you
http://www.coopdirectory.org/directory.htm
http://www.localharvest.org/food-coops/

PRODUCE PROCESSED FOODS AT HOME
Your Extension Service http://hgic.clemson.edu/linksotherresources.htm#OTHER%20EXTENSION%20SERVICES
has information on canning, preserving, food safety, dairy food production (yogurt and cheeses), storing foods etc.

BUY REGIONALLY PRODUCED PRODUCTS
Check the label for where processed foods are produced. Canneries and freezer plants are generally very close to the place where the food is grown. Find local mills for flours and grain products. Look for specialty foods of your region.

LEARN TO COOK TRADITIONAL REGIONAL RECIPES
They were designed around what grows well naturally in your area. Southerners eat cornbread because corn thrives in the heat. Northerners eat breads with rye flour because rye handles cold. The Japanese eat so much fish and seaweed because they are surrounded by them.

TWO REALLY GOOD RESOURCES:
http://www.sustainabletable.org/home/
http://www.localharvest.org/


(Please add to this)

[kayell]

1. Farm Stands, Direct Marketers, and Produce Stands

Farm stands are generally those small stands by the side of the road. They may sell a relatively limited selection of what is currently in season, but at a true farm stand, everything is grown very locally – right there at the farm. Some times a farm stand will gradually expand its sales by adding local specialty processed products like jams and jellies, then some produce or other foods, sometimes from outside the local area. Supporting farm stands puts money directly in the hands of the producer.

Produce Stands are likely to carry plenty of seasonal produce, but will also carry non-local foods that are in demand. They have sometimes evolved from farm stands, but are also often independent of the growers. Locally grown foods are usually signed as such with pride. These are local small businesses though and well worth supporting over the mega-corp grocers.

Direct Marketers sell farm products ranging from Christmas trees to meats to produce, either directly at their farm or at a stand. It is amazing what you may find locally. Here is an example in my area. http://www.foothillsmarket.com/

These places can be difficult to find if they aren’t located on a road you travel. Some places to look for them – classified ads of your local paper, word of mouth, googling, and most likely of all, your states Department of Agriculture. Find it here http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-agriculture.htm

In the Southeastern US a great resource for local products of all kinds are the Market Bulletins. If it can be produced on a farm, or is needed by farms, you’ll find it here. http://www.uga.edu/~ebl/readings/#Agricultural

[lpbk2713]

9. Thanks for the link to the Florida Market Bulletin

I bookmarked it and I'll check it out in detail later.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. This was interesting!

From the U-GA ag page:

Southern Cooking and Old Timey Varieties

One of the distinguishing features of the Southern Seed Legacy is the insistence on connecting seed saving with cultural aspects of living and social identity. In the South, the connection between garden, kitchen, ritual and shared meals is perhaps stronger than in any other region of North America. While the rest of the country is presently rediscovering the pleasure of “slow food,” southern folks can argue that they never really gave it up. Cooking is approached with the same passion as music and literature and often with the same techniques of improvisation, diversity, and hybridity. Today, a revival and preservation of Southern foods is taking place with its age-old emphasis on originality, purity, and plain good taste. Southern chefs, both amateur and professional, are discovering that the old timey varieties of fruits and vegetables provide the best hope for staying true to the region’s culinary successes taste preferences.
**************************************************************************************

The true old South style of gardening and cooking is something we have in common with the Italian people. When I was a child in Charleston, S.C., in the Fifties, businesses closed at mid-day for dinner, just as they still do in Italy.

[susanna]

19. I'm one of the first generation of my family born in the North.

I grow a garden EVERY year, especially for heirloom fruits and vegetables/seed saving. I have a tiny city lot, but have turned most of it over to gardening. I love it. I'm a big cook, too. I think it's more nurture than nature, though; Mom had huge gardens when I was growing up, and I picked, washed, prepped, canned and stored a lot of food as a child. It's just something my family does.

[kayell]

2. Share the food locally

Plant a Row for the Hungry
http://www.gardenwriters.org/par/Donation.html
Encourages gardeners to plant an extra area of produce specifically for donation to local food banks. Some people have organized community gardens specifically for the purpose of producing fresh vegetables for local food banks. Master Gardeners in many areas often have one of these programs.

Second Harvest
http://secondharvest.org/
Is involved a variety of local hunger related activities. They are happy to get donations of fresh produce. They are also involved in food rescues – salvaging excess usable food from restaurants, large events, even farm gleaning.
Search for a food bank or food rescue organization near you.
http://secondharvest.org/zip_code.asp?s=48

[Eloriel]

3. These are wonderful ideas, kayell

And don't forget -- there's a new Gardening forum right here in the DU Groups forum too.

And please, please, please, everyone -- garden organically. Not only is it SO much better for you (and the planet), it's another way to "starve the beast."

[kayell]

5. And please investigate IPM, but don't go past the organic

pest control methods in a home garden. Honestly, is there any pest damage in a home garden that is worth the hazard and expense and environmental effects of most pesticides? Many gardeners don't make this basic risk-benefit analysis, they just see some "evil critter" attacking their prize tomatoes, and want to kill, KILL, KILL (best Arlo Guthrie voice)

Incidentally, there seems to be a positive correlation between excessive pesticide use and republicanism. ;-)

IPM if you haven't already heard of it is Integrated Pest Management. It aims to manage pests so that they do not build up beyond an acceptable level.

IPM uses a combination of methods to prevent pests and manage them if they occur. Ideally pests are maintained at an acceptable level without resorting to sprays, even organic. If it comes to sprays, it is important to be aware that some of the older botanical pesticides such as nicotine and rotenone are extremely toxic.

I find that some people (mostly newbies to organic and gardening) try to just substitute in "organic" sprays in place of chemical sprays, when variety selection, sanitation, cultural and physical controls would have been cheaper and more effective.

In order to effectively manage a pest it is usually necessary to change the situations/habitat that favor the pest. Without changing the conditions that favor pests, they will almost certainly return, no matter what type pesticide is used.

An excellent resource to use of IPM methods in vegetable production is Sustainable Practices for Vegetable Production in the South http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/sustainable/peet/ This is an entire book online, and although geared to small commercial producers, it translates well to home gardens. Although methods, varieties, pests and timing may be different in other regions, the basic prinicples of IPM remain the same. And your county extension office can give you the local details.

Although Cooperative Extension Services used to be seen as terribly pesticide oriented, almost all have very happily adopted IPM. Many, like NC state, have very active organic growing programs. Please don't hesitate to call your Extension office and ask for organic gardening and IPM advice. I can pretty much guarantee that the agent will be delighted to talk to some one who isn't entirely focused on the one magic spray that will kill EVERYTHING (but them and their kids). LOL

Links to lots of good organic vegetable gardening info from around the country is here http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/hortinternet/organic.html

Eloriel - I couldn't agree more about the chem companies. The more you know about them, and the stuff they push, and the ways they do it, and the general misinformation......:nuke:

[susanna]

20. No pesticides for me, thanks.

I live in a city area, with fallout from heavy industrial plants, so I'll never be completely chemical-free or "organic", I guess. But in my own time, in my own garden, I have never topically applied a pesticide, and haven't for over 10 years.

My next-door "gardening" neighbor doesn't either. We're both naturalists in that sense. Our thought is, the bugs can have it if they get to it first. That thought alone keeps us constantly involved with our gardens.

I have fabulous soil after all this time; every spring I go through guilt pangs at how many earthworms I kill unintentionally while planting my seeds or seedlings. :-(

edited to finish a thought.

[K8-EEE]

4. Love It!! Thanks for the links.

Bookmarked them and can't wait to delve in.

[Lorien]

6. A kick for these excellent links!

I only wish I had the land to grow my own. We do have great farmer's markets, though.

[kayell]

7. I see these as a list of choices and possibilities

Not everyone can do all. Although I have a yard and garden, the amount of food production I can do is limited by shade, although I will probably be increasing the next year or 2 to the yards limits. (in the South, eliminating existing shade is energy insane) Others may have time or space or skill or physical limitations. But everyone can do something on this list.

I was very very pleased while checking these links to find some things I didn't know about. A small sustainable dairy within a few miles was the big one. Another was discovering that one of the small farmers near me not only grows all his greens organically, but (from his road side signs) was a Kerry supporter.

I found a CSA that I can join for $25 a week, that will supply me with enough veg for a family of 4. I will either split the subscription or donate the excess to the local soup kitchen. This will give me veg for 2 of the 4 months that my local farmers market is not open.
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Thank you for bumping this thread. I'd like to do more of these on different topics, but I'm not sure there is enough interest to justify the time. Perhaps this is stuff people already know.

[kayell]

8. Local Dairys list

http://www.realmilk.com/where2.html

While this list is geared to people seeking raw milk, it lists lots of local dairys that do sustainable dairying. Most also pasteurize. The list covers areas outside the US also.

Dairy products are a really important thing to buy as locally as possible, because of the shipping weight, and associated fuel use. And if you're like me, you may have been buying milk shipped for hundreds of miles in order to get organic milk.

[buycottJoe]

10. Bakery with a Kerry sign

I found a bakery in the Detroit area that I didn't know about before. It still had a John Kerry sign in the window, so of course I had to stop and give it a try.

I think it's great that bakeries are still usually locally owned, independent businesses. I wonder if before long, big corporations will move into this line of business also?

I know baked goods aren't the most healthy things you can eat, but I still do indulge occasionally.

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. Hey BJ.....

Let me know the name when you find out, will you? I'll add them to the Progressive PAges.

FSC

[buycottJoe]

17. FSC ....

I made a few additions to the Progressive Pages for local businesses in the Detroit, Michigan area, including the "bakery with a Kerry sign". I don't get over to Ann Arbor, Michigan often but I am thinking of entering the following list of Ann Arbor businesses that have a peace sign:

http://justpeaceinfo.org/stores-that-support-peace.html

I know how to look up the detail info. I called the 1st business in the list and they said that during the holidays they have Christmas decorations in the window rather than a peace sign, but they do sell peace yard signs and after the holidays they will again have a peace sign in the window. Some entries can take some research.

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. Thanks for the help!

I've been managing most of the load for a couple weeks now, and it gets to be a lot, I know! I usually have 5 browser windows open at a time checking the various spots for info.

I've been concentrating on the smaller businesses, and going for quantity to make it look like more.

Anything you can do to help would be AWESOME! Especially for Michigan, since we don't have a lot there yet. I noticed the entries, and said hallelujah! Keep up the good work.

FSC

[K8-EEE]

12. Thanks SO MUCH!! I Will Investigate All Of These

I really love this forum!

[DemBones DemBones]

14. Great resources! Thanks a lot, kayell.

:7 :7 :7

[cmf]

15. We belong to a CSA and grow our own food

Joining a CSA was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's cheap, and you get the best organic vegetables. I always freeze what we can't eat, so even in the winter, we're eating good locally grown produce. Plus it has widened my horizons as far as the foods I eat - I've tried all sorts of veggies that were either too daunting to purchase in the supermarket, or weren't even available at all (like garlic curls - one of my favorites).

My husband also keeps a container garden on the patio. Last summer he grew tomatoes, red and green chilies, basil, coriander, chives and strawberries. Yum!

[cally]

16. I shop at the local farmer's market

and ran into a friend last Sunday. She knew much more than I do about how the food is grown and directed me to the best stands. I recommend asking others in your community for who to buy from.