Eating Local

Part of the new changes, no more win and fail. I think it makes the titles visually irritating. Anywho...

I seriously have GOT to write more often. I'm going to lose followers, I happen to really like the dozen of you!

On to the business at hand. Farmer's Markets. Holy cow, they're like the mecca of wonderfully priced produce! I have to admit, I kind of thought you went once a year to get awesome peaches or watermelons. That the rest of the stuff you could buy at the store. GOOD GRIEF. Let me just say, I was stupid.

Courtesy of Google Search

Through a couple of twists and turns of life late last year, I have had to learn to be incredibly frugal with our grocery budget. The first things to go? Organic meats, then organic produce, then I just kind of gave up and started letting the kids eat crap. The produce aisle at Aldi looked decent and the prices were better than any of the other chain grocery stores. So I shopped there. Not knocking Aldi, their snack food is super reasonably priced and they support GMO labeling as a company which is kinda big to me. I get most of our staples there.

I just wanted something more, something healthier that I could feel good about feeding the boys. I found a very small local farmer's market in my area. If you live in Antioch or in southeast Nashville, please check out the farmer's market here. It's small but it's growing. Laurel Mountain has AMAZING eggs and pork! Their CSA is super cheap to join. Here's more about Farmer's Market at the Crossings.

I wanted to try the downtown farmer's market because I wanted to can tomatoes this summer. We all loaded up and went weekend before last. I was amazed. We actually had dinner that night made up completely of items from the market. It was probably one of the best meals we've had, EVER.The boys and I went alone this weekend. I spent $40 today and got more food than I will know what to do with! I have blueberries and corn to freeze. I'll probably also chop and freeze some onion to have on hand because I pretty much use onion in everything other than cereal. Here's what all I got:
1 pint of blueberries
2 dozen eggs organic, pastured
1 quart of goat's milk...
1 dozen ears of corn
approx 2 lbs each of apples, tomatoes, potatoes (purple and yukon gold, not just plain bakers!), onions
big bag of kale
2 avocados
3 bulbs of garlic
3 each cucumbers and zucchini.

Holy. Cow. That's a lot of food for CHEAP! Plus, we just helped stimulate our local economy. We're going to be eating foods this week that were grown close to home, that are grown by hardworking farmers, and that were picked when they were ripe, not forced to ripen artificially. Plus, the vendors encourage you to eat right there! The boys walked around eating tomatoes this morning. They were a hit.

If you live near Nashville, follow this link to see what produce is available at what times of the year. You should be able to find one of these charts on any farmer's market website in your area.

Seriously, get up a little early on Saturday morning. Your belly will thank you for it all week!