Last spring I read a book that challenged my thinking about the food we eat and where it comes from--Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Barbara and her family committed to eating locally (meaning food grown within a 100 mile radius of their home) for one year. Wow, a novel concept isn’t it? I have always tried to eat food that remembers where it came from, but to consider eating local foods as much as possible and eating seasonally was a shift in my thinking.
So that summer I shopped the farmers markets in Noblesville and Fishers a lot more, with a new appreciation for the farmers and their hard work. It felt great to support them by buying their food and to be consuming food grown here. So, instead of spending $20 here and there in occasional jaunts to the market, I regularly went home with fresh produce, eggs, honey, and meat, having spent a big chunk of my weekly food budget at an open air market with the people who grew my food. As I began questioning where (and from where) we buy our food, it felt weird to be in an artificially lit grocery store in July buying produce shipped from California when I could buy food at the market, as local and fresh as it gets.
Eat local, shop local, live simply, dry your clothes on a clothesline, get back to the Earth—these are definitely worthwhile pursuits. See www.goinglocal-info.com for info about eating locally in Indiana. The Noblesville market opens Saturday, May 22nd from 8am-12:30pm in the parking lot east of Riverview Hospital. PS—ask the farmers if their produce is organic since local AND organic is ideal.
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