Eating locally grown

I went to an interesting discussion panel last night about the benefits of eating locally grown produce and ingredients. I was impressed by how much produce has to travel before it finds itself on my plate — the average distance they cited was 1,500 miles! And, to survive that travel, it has to be picked long before it’s ripe and spend several weeks on a boat or truck, where many of the nutrients break down.

Now, at the end of February, it is really difficult to insist on locally grown produce in the Boston Area because there really isn’t very much, but it makes me think twice about those organic apples from New Zealand, that must be hauled from the other side of the planet.

Fortunately, there are still a good number of local farms in Massachusetts whose produce is available in the spring through fall – mostly through various farmers markets or select specialty stores. Another option is Community Supported Agriculture, where you purchase a share of a farm’s crop for the upcoming year. I’ve recently decided to give this a try and purchased a share of produce from Red Fire Farm and will begin receiving weekly shipments of produce in June.

I look forward to the challenges this will create – not selecting my own produce is a new experience for me – but I’ve found the quality of in-season, locally grown produce at the farmers market has always been superior in taste to produce in the supermarket. It’s not always as pretty to look at though, but still tastes better!

I hope to integrate Farmer’s markets into Cook’s Compass – it presents a completely different set of challenges than brick-and-mortar shops, but we like a challenge and hope to make the site a complete resource for local food shopping!