Farm Markets Open Now!!

No pictures today but I will paint you a visual. All around the country in towns, cities and even suburbs Farmer's Markets are popping up. Ten by ten pop up tents with tables laden with fresh greens, onions, colorful swiss chard, herbs, pasture raised and FINISHED beef in coolers. Real farmers who love what they do are doing this for YOU! Skip the produce section of the not so super supermarket and find out which day your local farmer's market takes place. Meet the people. Sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Learn how to cook things you never tried before.
Savor the locally made jams, and bread. Talk to the artists who make clothing and jewelry. Pick up a tomato plant start or some hot peppers. Localharvest.org is a great site for finding farms and farmers and markets. Also, eatwild.com is a great site for finding pasture raised chicken, cow, pig, sheep and goat. Take a day to visit a farm within 50 miles of where you live... I will be at the 12th annual Food for Life gathering in the beautiful Sequatchie Valley of Tennessee June 3-6th teaching workshops to mostly kids but adults to about many different aspects of our food experience. Composting, garden critters, making bread and BUTTER plus some other great stuff that I will be sharing. Try something new...taste something you never tasted before. What if you couldn't get all of the processed food we have available to us today? What would you eat? It's definitely a question we should all be considering. Would you eat dandelion greens from your lawn for salad? Would you try zuccinni? What about kale, radishes or rutabaga? How would that taste? Would you know how to prepare it?

Farm Market Food Shopping for Everyone!!

Although it's late in the growing season the local farmers are still producing some great late season veggies. If your local farm market hasn't closed yet or your CSA has a winter CSA it's a great lesson in eating seasonally. Fall greens, root  vegetables and squashes are full of dark green, oranges and reds. The darker the color the more nutrition you are getting. I think it also opens us up to trying new and different varieties of foods that we might not try otherwise. When you are a gypsy mama it can be difficult to belong to a  CSA because we are usually never in  one place long enough to join one. That however doesn't deter us from seeking our homegrown, locally produced food. The food movement is on! And we haven't traveled to a place yet that didn't have a way for us to seek out and find the best of what this country has to offer. Industrial farming in unnatural and even the organics found in supermarkets and big box stores are shipped from far far away from where you buy them. Imagine purchasing fresh vegetables that were grown, nutured and  picked with loving care only hours before you receive them, instead of days and thousands of miles possibly from their source. These real food farm markets we are finding are carrying all of the things we purchase on a weekly basis...dairy (including milk, cream, eggs & cheese), animal meats that are raised and fed the way nature intended, fruits, vegetables, canned and preserved goods (jams, jellies, pickles, relishes) and many baked goods too. The Franklin Farmer's Market we attended yesterday has all types of artisans too, clothing, knitted items, jewelry, musicians and lots of wonderful people with their dogs walking around shopping supporting local agriculture. This was our second visit to this market as the gyspy husband's company was working in this area before.

This gypsy mama knows that the heartbeat of the communties we visit through our travels are at these farm markets. We make it a point to search for local. For example we wanted pizza Friday night, we wanted it locally owned and operated. I even called a old friend who has lived in the area we are in for years to get a recommendation. Unfortunately, all he could suggest were two chains. I finally found one by googling "Locally Owned Pizza" and the name of the city and state. We found a great little local place and we're very happy with and the pizza was really good, plus we felt good about supporting a local restauranteur.

Here are some photos of our wonderful finds from the farmer's market, I am looking forward to turning all of this beautiful food into some delicious meals. I just know that with ingredients like this not only will our bodies be nourished but our souls as well.