Eating and buying local

In my "real" life, I am a goat farmer and I spend my weekends selling at farmer's markets.  My closest friends are farmers.  The great thing about working at farmer's markets is that I have access to really great produce and products.  I really miss that during the winter.

Back in 2005,  Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon began a one-year experiment in local eating which started the whole "locavore" movement.  Not that I really buy into all these "fad" movements, but this one I think is worth following.  If you are not familiar with the locavore or 100 mile diet - basically it means you should only buy and eat food that is grown or raised in a 100 mile radius of where you live.  The advantages of this diet is that you not only support the people raising and growing your food, but you know exactly how your food is being grown (and most farmers welcome the opportunity to show off their farms).

In my case with working at the farmer's market, I know all the farmers and there are certain farmers that I will always buy from and some I won't.  It concerns me lately that there has been so many product recalls in the grocery stores because of tainted products - last year the egg scare (thank you, that did wonders for my egg sales!), the problems with e-coli and packaged spinach and the list goes on and on.  BUT you don't hear that happening with any of the local small farmers.  Gee, I wonder why?  It is because the local guy ALSO feeds his produce to his family.  So do you think he is going to do anything to harm his family?

I will get off my soapbox now.  I know this had absolutely nothing to do with baking, but I did want to put in a plug for our local farmers who are working so hard to bring the best products to your table.  If you get a chance, go to your local farmer's market, get to know the farmers and buy their products.