laurie! thanx a million! you've already made me forget the reason i came to the forum tonight but that site is a FABULOUS find! oh man--perfect for my purposes--THANK YOU!

You can use it to be more environmentally conscious, but also to save money, since what is in season is often the best buy. I have really had to economize on food since my employment malaise.

Wow! I've been wanting to use mostly seasonal this year, as my food budget has soared these past couple of years...and the environment and our health and buying out of season is just pretty much tastless and for looks.
I've got this site bookmarked.
Thank you!

Wonderful site...Thank you!

I know...I know...but I can't do without citrus....and it just doesn't grow in Iowa in January....

About the only local/in season food in Minnesota right now would be popsicles....

Linda

Linda, I make exceptions for the foods that cannot grow here, ever. So I still eat citrus, bananas, avocado, chocolate etc. However I am not buying blueberries in the middle of winter any more.

That site says there is nothing local here until May. However I have a winter CSA share and I am getting 10 lbs of stored root veggies, 2 butternut squash, 1 head of cabbage, 2 heads of garlic, and about half a lb of spinach form an unheated greenhouse every other week. Now my only problem is what to do with the D*mm cabbage. My family is growing tired of the braised cabbage recipe we like.

-Robin

LOL Robin, I was thinking about starting a "cabbage" thread. I can make coleslaw a gazillion different ways. Next in line for me is a cabbage soup recipe that I got from here.

There are other ways to get out of season produce, such as frozen and home canned, which are both strategies I employ. I grew up with local produce, I just don't trust a January peach. Frankly I don't trust a store bought peach anyway. Luckily I can get great local ones in Aug. There's also a place on that site that tells what produce has the most pesticides, and peaches lead the pack. Along with apples, celery, lettuce, berries, and potatoes. Spinach and peppers are also bad. I can't afford most organic stuff though, except the celery, which isn't more expensive. I used to buy it, but not anymore. Now I peel all my apples and potatoes and carrots. I never have bought much of the bagged greens, even the organic ones, unless it's a special occasion, they go bad on me. Most of the really bad stuff isn't practical for me to eat anyway. Except green peppers, which are my one splurge. They are already so expensive, I can't justify the ginormous cost of the organic.

That's one of the great joys of canning, you can get a yummy, inexpensive fruit fix even in the middle of winter! I also like cooking with the frozen stuff. If I had my act together more like Annie I would buy the stuff in season and freeze it for winter. Several of my friends who are into u-picks do that. I have a small freezer and I don't make as good use of it as I should.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guide to pesticides in produce

I see for Michigan the last 2 months of the year the only produce available is 'Christmas Trees' LOL. I didn't know they were edible :-)

This is a great topic, and will be a hot topic for years to come as people are going to be more aware of where their food comes from and how it effects are economy as a nation, and the overall health too.

Duane

I sure wish that shipping wasn't so expensive...you'd all have fresh lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges on your doorsteps as they are all in season and the gardner is getting ready to trim out the trees. The fruit needs to be picked.
I wish I liked marmalade, but I've not acquired a taste for it. And other than curd I don't know how else to preserve them.

Deborah, check out the "Harvest" forum, they have great ideas posted there.

I keep hearing about "preserved lemons" in moroccan cooking. I wonder how they do it?

Last year I made vanilla bean marmelade, you might like that. You can probably find the recipe if you use the search function here or on Harvest.

I think there was also a recipe there for lemon salt? I dunno, I haven't been able to get the "Harvest" link to work for a while.

I'll bet you can freeze citrus juice.

I envy all the southerners now. We get citrus up here, but not all the fabulous varieties you have, just the tried and true. I can't get meyer lemons here, for example. The only one I ever tasted was at Annie's, and I think that came in a care package from . . . maybe Lee? Someone on this forum. I was drinking too many meyer lemon martinis, I have completely forgottn who it was.

Thanks for the link!

As for cabbage, why not do a cabbage-apple-porkchop dish?

Thank you! There is a farmers market listed I didn't even know about. Have to wait until May but that is okay.

Great site - got it bookmarked.

Awesome site, Lori! Thanks!

I will definitely keep the "local" stuff in mind as I shop - but I have to wonder why they listed Mushrooms from Delaware. Isn't West Chester PA supposed to be the mushroom capitol? LOLOLOL!

Anyway - great info and yes, I think there SHOULD be a cabbage thread so I am going to start one!

Alexa

Thanks for starting this thread. Eating locally (as much as possible) and in season (ditto) is so important. Aside from reducing fuel (and carbon emissions) from shipping food all over the world and protecting the food supply (the more centralized, the more vulnerable), eating locally helps keep local farms in business and encourages new farming enterprises directed toward the ultimate consumer.

You may also want to look at eatwild.com for links to local suppliers of pastured meat.

Keep up the good work!

deborah,

You can freeze the juice/pulp from citrus & freeze.

I grew up on 2,000 acres of Thompson seedless grapes. On the ranch we also had about 200 acres of citrus (oranges, lemons mostly). One of my chores was to peel the oranges, seed, & remove as much of the outer membranes as possible. Then, I'd run the fruit through the blender into a pulp. We froze the result of my chores drinking most of it in various punches but Mom also used the frozen orange in sauces & she made an orange/date quick bread that I loved as a child using the frozen pulp/juice.

We also froze whole grapes...lots of them. Us kids (3 of us) would eat them during the summer before the new crop came in right from the freezer. They were great on a hot, San Juaquin summer day! Mom also used the frozen grapes thawed in fruit salads all year long.

We had citrus & grapes coming out our ears...I'll try to remember how else Mom preserved all of that stuff. My memory says that the lemons were pretty much everbearing & that the orange crop started coming in late fall or early winter. Also, I remember oranges keep really well left on the trees.

Every year, we had huge boxes of oranges in the garage waiting for me to peel & juice. At the time, I thought it was a PITA but I sure would like just a few of those trees in my backyard now!

Virtually 100% of our grape crop went to the Sunmaid Raisin plant in Selma. We would keep a couple 50 lb. bags for home use & those were frozen also. We knocked them apart for use with an ice pick! I remember being let out of school for 2-3 weeks in September to help my family pick grapes & put them on white paper in between the rows to dry. Then, getting out again to help gather the grapes for sale to Sunmaid. Believe me, the raisins you can buy in boxes from Sunmaid are terrible compared to raisins right from the fields. I had family air freight me a 50 lb. bag every year right from the field up until about the mid-90s when shipping costs got prohibitive. Now, I rarely use raisins because they are icky compared to the fresh. Anyway, unless you've got acres of trees you should be able to preserve the entire crop when you're sick of eating them fresh.

/tricia

I made a commitment to eating local last year, it really isn't that hard. As has been noted above, freezing and canning are the way to go.

I cut up (in the freezer)green and red peppers when they were 4 and 5 for a $1, now they are .79 cents and up a piece. We had locally grown veggies for the holiday season, they taste so much better, even frozen, than processed.

I have run out of tomatoes, will have to buy canned and till I can get fresh again, which is why I want to learn how to can this year.

For any Ohio cooks on the forum, here is a site for buying local. I shop at a local grocer that sells local (in season), just look for the OhioProud logo at your local stores.

Good thread :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio Proud

What a great story Tricia! And history.
I worked in the green bean fields as a youngster, and blueberries....the kids are missing something now not working like we all did. The memories alone are worth so much.
I do freeze some of the juices...but I have just a smaller freezer with the kids gone now.
I've made the preserved lemons...and didn't use them as they are s-a-l-t-y! Thought I'd use them in roasted chicken. Pretty though.

I feel kind of torn about this. I do always prefer fresh fruit in season and locally grown.
Even in winter, at market I usually buy stored apples that were grown locally.
But, I also have to consider that people in Chile will prosper if we buy their grapes. And those grapes are delicious, unlike out-of-season peaches.
Other countries need to be able to export things to us. Why not food?

Please direct me to any farms in my area, LOL. When you live metro, ALL food is transported to you.

Gina, while all food is transported to LA there are lots of "local" options. Local is defined as within 100 miles of your home. Everything is grown in California (or so it seems to me in VT) so you can get stuff at a farmer's market or a CSA. A friend in New York City does.

-Robin

Hoping that I am you live in LA, here is a site that lists CSA that have a pick up in LA. I live in the largest city in Vermont, however this is Vermont, so we have farms. LOL! My family form NYC walks around the whole city saying how much they love nature.

-R

Here is a link that might be useful: CSA listing

CSA's are incredible, unless you are single like me. I can barely use up the head of lettuce I buy every week at the grocery, before it goes bad. In the summer I thrive on U-picks or farm markets. I also can't ever get over the urge to grow my own, even in my tiny, tiny urban yard. I have basil, thyme, parsley or cilantro and dill, and tomatos and peppers in pots, and raspberry and blueberry bushes. I even harvested the hips off my rose bush to make jelly, although the aggravation was not worth the taste with the rose variety I have.

This summer I plan to put in a garden at work, next to our composting exhibit. Just so I can grow some really good tomatoes. The pot kind are nothing to write home about. I want to grow a mess of sauce tomatoes so I can make more of the great tomato sauce recipe that I got from Boo/Becky. Plus I would like to get on the "grow your own garlic" bandwagon, lol!

LPink, Im understand the problem as I have trouble keeping up with a family of 4. Lots ofd folks I know split their CSA shares. However working three jobs could also get in the way.

-Robin

I'm not sure how all CSAs work but at one of our local CSA you can buy an entire year which consists of 3 seasons or just 1 season, each season equals 8 wks. It does not list the months each season is but I think we might buy 1 season and see how that goes.

Joe's afraid we might end up throwing out most of the vegetables. But I think it would be fun to get a box of stuff and then work with it.

I do plan on putting in our garden this year...YES it's going to get done...for sure!

Michelle

It's sad I had to use the internet to discover that there is a farmer's market about a mile from my house in the mall parking lot. I am so embarrassed--we were just talking about how that empty lot 3 miles away would make a great farmer's market that we so desperately needed.

....another great site :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Local Harvest

Some small farm markets are only open for a short period of time. There was one in a little town up the road from where I used to live, but only at the very end of the season did they have much produce. Depends on how many local producers you have to keep the thing going.

Many people have suggested I get a half share in a CSA, but even that would be too much for me, I'm afraid. I wish I knew someone to go in with me. I'm not sure there is a CSA near me, but I may be moving so it may be moot. I have scoped out the farm markets around here, and we are blessed in the Lehigh Valley. I live three blocks from a huge, year-round "farm market" but very little of what you get there is locally grown. It is still fun to shop there for some specialty items, and a few local things now and again. But we are still rural enough to have many viable market farms and U-picks, which is where I go for the local stuff.

I was so fortunate to grow up in a town with a farm market and apple orchard just ouside of town. My mom went to the farm market once a week in the summer. I credit the place with developing my taste for fresh, real homegrown produce. That and growing up in the land of a thousand home gardens, a place not unlike the mythical Lake Woebegon, where vegetable gardening was a competitive sport.

L, thanks for bringing this up. You know how I feel, I think we need to get closer to our food.

Fortunately, I don't like bananas, since I can't grow 'em, and I can take avocados or leave them, but I haven't figured out what to do about citrus, especially lemons. I love lemon.

I know Michigan doesn't have a lot of local produce right now, but my root cellar is still providing potatoes, onions, cabbage, butternut squash and a few apples. If I can keep them, I'm sure stores can.

I know that I am in a unique position, where about 90% of the food I eat was grown, not just locally, but personally. I haven't figured out how to grow coffee beans in MIchigan yet either, unfortunately, or tea plants. Yeah, I know, but I'm working on it. LOL

Annie

If you haven't read Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle....you need to...Eating only locally grown food for one year, her family story. It's a delightful read and losts of good advice and recipes. Also, the "Slow Food" movement/organization is just about eating locally.

Local is defined as within 100 miles of your home.

LOL! A mile to the west is the Pacific Ocean.

The farmers' markets are a staple for us. On our teensy lot, with several mature trees, growing our own is not possible. I wish I could grow herbs all year, but lack of sun in the winter does them in.