How to Eat Local Foods

Guide Note

Finding and using local food sources is a great way to improve your diet and make sure your produce and meat comes from nearby farms and producers. Online strategies and word of mouth are two ways to find local foods. How to Eat Local Foods will give you a head start on ways to find the freshest veggies, fruits and other produce.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Step 1: Finding Local Food Sources
• Step 2: Go to the Source
• Step 3: Grow Your Own Food
• Step 4: Change Your Eating Habits
• Step 5: Get Involved, Get Educated
• Conclusion

Tips for Eating Locally

1. Support local growers for fresher foods and a green world.
2. Find local food sources online, or ask about local farms at your market.
3. Visit local farms, U-Picks and roadside stands for local foods.
4. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms will deliver to you.
5. Get your school (or your children's) to serve local foods.

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• by Vince C.

Introduction

• Eating right is all the rage. So is greening your life. So what's more green than greening your greens? Eating local foods is a good idea, now more than ever. Not only does it bolster the local economy by supporting small, local farms,¹ the local foods movement reduces the carbon footprint of your meals and ensures that what you're eating is as fresh as possible.² But despite its many benefits, joining the local foods movement isn't as hard as you might think!

Step 1: Finding Local Food Sources

• 

  The first step is to buy food from local sources. (Creative Commons photo by Jonny Hunter)
  Finding and using local sources is, by definition, the only way to eat local foods. There are several ways to approach the search for local foods. Online research and word of mouth are two ways to conduct your research.

Ask Your Grocer

1. Determine whether your market gets their food from local growers - Sustainable Table provides question for your grocer about the farm or location where their products come from.
2. Special offers. Some stores may offer local foods only during certain times of year.³ Find out if and when your neighborhood store is highlighting local growers.
3. Sustainability. Ask about the sustainability of such products as their beef, chicken and dairy products.⁴ The quality of what you eat depends on a variety of factors, so ask what the beef, turkey or chicken was fed, and whether they were given antibiotics.

Find Local Producers Online

1. Farms. Whole Foods Market can get you in touch with regional producers offering a variety of foods within driving distance.
2. Food co-ops. Food co-ops and health food stores with local foods are another good source that can be found online.⁵
3. Farmers markets⁶ offer the wares of local producers.⁷ Growers bring their foods to your neighborhood, and you'll find a complete variety of produce.
4. Community Supported Agriculture. Find out if there are any Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in your area. You can subscribe to a CSA and receive local foods every season.⁸
5. Widget. In your quest to search out and patronize local growers, you can even get a widget to put on your homepage or social networking site.⁹

Step 2: Go to the Source

• Hit the road to visit those local producers you've found.¹⁰ You'll probably discover you have many more eating choices when you can choose your own growers.

1. Visit local farmers. Find producers of everything from meat and poultry to vegetables and fruit within driving distance of home.¹¹
2. Check out a Pick Your Own for a fun way to eat local.¹² Also known as U Picks, there's a u pick for just about any kind of produce you're looking for.¹³
   • - How much to pick depends on what you're picking and what you want to do¹⁴ - for instance, if you're picking apples in order to make applesauce, canning and freezing will yield different amounts.
3. Keep an eye out for roadside stands, a great source of locally grown foods.¹⁵

Step 3: Grow Your Own Food

• 

  Starting your own garden is an active way to start eating locally. (Creative Commons photo by Southern Foodways Alliance)
  More labor intensive than buying from a grower, a garden gives the do-it-yourselfer more than just vegetables, you'll get a sense of fulfillment.

1. Plan your garden. Preliminary ideas on how big to make your garden and other considerations will maximize your success.¹⁶
2. Consider the amount of shade you'll need for your produce.¹⁷ Some vegetables such as lettuce only need partial shade; tomatoes, on the other hand, need direct sunlight.
3. When seeding,¹⁸ keep in mind what grows well in your area and how much of everything you want to grow.¹⁹
4. Drainage is also important for your plants. One advantage of gardening in containers is easy drainage.²⁰

• • - If you're a novice green thumb, make sure to visit Mahalo's page on How to Start a Vegetable Garden for a complete gardening guide.

Step 4: Change Your Eating Habits

• Your eating habits are not cast in stone. If you want to eat local and seasonal, there are fewer choices for you so you will have to adjust somewhat.

Eat Seasonal

• Locavores have no choice - what you see is what you get when it comes to eating local. If you live in California and tomatoes are not in season, no tomatoes. If you find tomatoes in your supermarket out of season, they have come from far away. While a little more planning is involved in eating local foods, one of the pluses is discovery - you'll find plenty of foods you may not have tried.
  • - Sustainable Table provides more tips for eating seasonally.

Experiment

• Because eating locally may introduce you to some new ingredients, you may have to adapt your traditional recipes, or even experiment with entirely new ones.
  1. New recipes and meal ideas are widely available for the new, seasonal foods you have discovered.²¹
  2. You can also try out seasonal food cookbooks can provide plenty of inspiration if you have a taste for culinary exploration.²²

Subscribing to CSA farms may provide local foods you wouldn't otherwise get to sample. (Creative Commons photo by TheBittenWord.com)

Subscribe to CSA Farms

• Community Supported Agriculture farms, or CSAs, depend on a network of subscribers for support. In return for subscribing, locavores benefit from the convenience of having food come to them instead of having to seek out growers in the area.
  1. Local Harvest is a good source of information on CSAs.
  2. Keep in mind that subscribing in advance to a CSA also means taking your chances - if there's a bad harvest in your region, your CSA basket for that season might not be all that you dreamed of.

Eat Out Locally

• Discover locavore restaurants in your area.²³
  1. Ask the manager at your favorite restaurant if they use local ingredients.
  2. According to the Washington Post, chain restaurants are even getting on the localtarian bandwagon.²⁴

Step 5: Get Involved, Get Educated

• Eating locally requires a certain amount of research and leg work. While the local foods movement is steadily growing in popularity, it's still somewhat of a new concept. Helping to make local foods more mainstream will also make it more convenient.
  • - Sustainable Table has some great ideas on how to get local foods in your children's cafeteria to make sure your kids can eat green for lunch.

Conclusion

• Eating locally is more than just doing your research, it's also a lifestyle choice. It's a way to improve your health by eating better, and also a way to contribute to the greater good by minimizing the all-important carbon footprint. And if you work it right, helping to save the planet can taste really good.

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References for How To Eat Local Foods

1. ↑ Food Routes: Why Care
2. ↑ Boston: Reducing Food's Carbon Footprint (April 16, 2008)
3. ↑ Kroger: Home Grown
4. ↑ The Meatrix: Sustainability
5. ↑ Green People: Food Coops
6. ↑ Local Harvest: Farmers Markets
7. ↑ Green People: Farmers Market
8. ↑ USDA: Community Supported Agriculture
9. ↑ Eat Well Guide: Widgets
10. ↑ National Resources Defense Council: Food Miles
11. ↑ Eat Well Guide: Find Sustainable Food
12. ↑ Pick Your Own: Locator
13. ↑ Virtual Farmgirl: U Pick Strawberries
14. ↑ Pick Your Own: How Much to Pick
15. ↑ Ice Cream Journal: The Roadside Stand
16. ↑ Garden: Planning 101
17. ↑ Hopkins Technology: Shade
18. ↑ You Grow Girl: Vegetable Seed Starting
19. ↑ Almanac: Gardening
20. ↑ Virginia Cooperative Extension: Vegetables Gardening in Containers
21. ↑ Sustainable Table: Recipes
22. ↑ Sustainable Table: Cookbooks
23. ↑ Chefs Collaborative: Locavore Restaurants
24. ↑ WashingtonPost.com: In Trial Run, Chipotle Heads to the Farm (March 26, 2008)

Online Resources for How To Eat Local Foods

• Sustainable Table: Questions To Ask | Eat Seasonal | School dining
• Whole Foods Market: Locally Grown
• Local Harvest: Community Supported Agriculture