Picking fruit can be fun for all ages

You’ve heard that tune, “Summertime, when the living is easy”?  Well this is one season when it is also easy to eat local. 

I really look forward to summer meals… everything is so, well, FRESH!  Whether you are picking from your own backyard garden, or you have joined a CSA (the video in the link will tell you all about CSAs and how to join), or just frequent a farmer’s market on Saturday mornings, you can be eating food that is day(s) from the dirt. 

Not only does eating local food save fuel useage and help your local economy, but it usually tastes better since it is picked when ripe.  Getting the experience of picking on a farm yourself is priceless, and a really great way to entice kids outside.   If you have not already read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, check out our previous post.  The advantages to knowing where your food comes from are countless for your health as well as the health of our earth.

Watch out, though, because you (and your kids if you have them) will eat local fruit like candy.  We can’t get enough of the sweet blueberries this year… yum.

“Where do I find a recipe for Tatsoi?”, “Will my kids eat white radishes?” These are some questions I’ve had while opening my weekly CSA box.

CSA, or “Community Supported Agriculture” is a rapidly spreading phenomenon where people are skipping the middle man and getting their produce right from the farmer. Pretty exciting stuff… you can actually know where your food is coming from, and it is likely from a source within 20 miles from your doorstep. In a CSA, a group of families (ours has 150) pay the farmer a fee up front for 10-12 weeks of weekly boxes of produce. Ours has veggies and fruit, some include options of grass-fed meat and hormone and antibiotic-free eggs. Being in the CSA has definitely expanded our vegetable repertoire… collards are actually okay! And I have spoken to “my farmer” several times and enjoy supporting someone I like and trust. I have posted his CSA on http://www.localharvest.org/ and hope if you are interested in finding a CSA in your area you will check it out!

It is true that you can do more for the environment by changing the way you eat (eating locally as much as possible, eating lower on the food chain) than if you dropped your SUV for a Prius. And, you could find out, like my family, that the changes make you healthier and happier. Who can argue with that?