Comments on: Why Eat Local? Finding Real Local Food

By: Ami

Ami — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:09:02 +0000

I have just started reading your blog, and it is so encouraging. Transitioning to a healthier lifestyle is so intimidating but I am so encouraged by how you educate us homemakers.

I have had so much fun at our Farmer’s Market and I’ve been so pleased to take to the farmers. They just LOVE to talk about their produce, dairy, and meat! They are a happy bunch on market day! One concern I have is that gardening has become so popular here in Kentucky that the farmer’s are really noticing a drop in demand. Even though I have a garden, they have things I don’t have, like eggs and honey.

I’ve also been surprised at the local abundance. My honey comes from less than 10 miles from my home, and many farmers bring eggs and meat to the market! Soon I’ll be buying some beef from my Pappaw, about 100 miles away, for about $1.70/lb. It’s surprising that healthier food is often not really more expensive.

Thanks for your hard work on this blog, I hope to begin implementing more of what you’re demonstrating! Have a blessed day!

By: Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Kelly the Kitchen Kop — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:37:52 +0000

Lindsay, I’ve been wanting to tell you that I read your blog all the time but just don’t always have time to comment! I’m stumbling this post now, and thanks for joining in on Real Food Wednesday!

Saralyn, that same thing drives me crazy at our farm market. Non-local should NOT be allowed!

Kelly

By: Saralyn

Saralyn — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:46:21 +0000

One more thing–farmers’ markets are getting sneaky. Only one in our area requires its vendors to be the growers/producers of their items. Many other markets have vendors who simply buy wholesale organic produce and such from who-knows-where and resell it at higher prices. In other words, locally purchased is not always locally grown, even if it comes from an earthy looking gal in overalls!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:48:18 +0000

I definately agree. I live in a small farming community, but the farmers here almost always take their produce to big city farmers markets where they can get better prices for it. And a lot of the markets have just as many booths selling non-produce items as the ones that do. Sometimes I wonder if I’m at a craft fair.

By: Joyce

Joyce — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:41:54 +0000

I’m always envious of people who have access to affordable farmers markets. I live in a large city with two fairly large farmers markets, but they are very pricey. It’s all very boutique-y. And don’t even get me started on the grass fed beef. It’s about $8 a pound just for hamburger and if I drive direct to farms an hour and a half outside the city the prices are no better. Affordable farmers markets seem to be a very regional perk.

By: Maggy

Maggy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:56:27 +0000

Thank you for the links. Here in San Diego, local food is not as popular as it should be. So now I’ll have an easier time of sourcing it. And with a toddler who thinks that her mission in life is to be in CONSTANT MOTION, making my life easier makes me a happy Mama.

My husband just looked over my shoulder to read what I’m reading (I hate that and thus I shall have to tickle him mercilessly) and said that a happy Mama make him a happy husband. So thanks from both of us I guess.

By: Alaina

Alaina — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:23:21 +0000

I totally agree. The native people here in Alaska grew up eating whale (which only they are allowed to hunt now, with extinction of belugas on the horizon), berries, and fish in a variety of ways. It is a total adjustment for my husband and I (we just moved 3 months ago) and we’re still figuring it out. This is a very high meat culture, and we really don’t like a lot of meat. But in some of the villages here the berries have more vitamin C than oranges. So God truly has provided, it is just a high learning curve for us because we LOVE our veggies!

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:30:03 +0000

Be encouraged to do what you can! You may not have the abundance of some part of the country, but you do have food and that is much to be thankful for! Cherries are not cheap here either even when they grow here. Some products you just have to avoid because of the high cost when trying to eat naturally on a budget.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:26:57 +0000

This really got me thinking…It begs the question to me…what did traditional societies eat there? You are not the first to mention you can’t find local food. I found Dr. Weston A Price’s research of various cultures around the world very fascinating. He discovered that no matter what they ate, they ate what was available to them and they were healthy. IF they lived by the sea, it was mainly seafood, and other products, and very few to any produce, but they were healthy because they did not consume the packaged/processed food of our Western culture. It wasn’t about a certain number of vegetables, fruits, protein, etc. as in our current diet recommendations. They ate what was available in their area. I think for many to eat locally, it is going to have to rethinking our traditional diet recommendations.

Also, I wonder if there was more demand for local products, as in most things, the prices would go down?

Just my thoughts…

By: alexis

alexis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:54:01 +0000

Thanks for an informative post! I had never heard of the Eat Well Guide. That turned out to be pretty useful for me! Unfortunately, we don’t have many sources of pastured beef, chicken or pork here in southern Indiana. However, we do have a very large Amish community about 30 min. from my town, so I think I am going to try to find a source through them. They raise all their crops and livestock very naturally, with no pesticides, hormones, purely grass-fed, etc… Hopefully this tip will help other readers as well.