has certainly furthered my fantastical dreams of having my own homestead one day, yet with our house up for sale, our fantastical farm will have to wait :). Our veggie garden is quaint, yet hardly a massive operation to feed four people. So, my latest mission is this: I must go into hunter/gatherer mode and shop for as many fresh veggies and humanely raised meats from as many local farms as possible. A few short years ago if I had done this, we would have starved or been sick from vitamin deficiencies as you could count the number of local farmer's markets on two fingers. Our town is changing, and now there are numerous farmer's markets that fill this city over various days of the week. Many of the markets are spread across town, but the miles are minuscule compared to the thousands of miles grocery foods travel to our stores.
The closest market I visit is 3 miles from my house on Saturdays. I was thrilled to go this past weekend to find it much busier than usual, and nearly sold out!! And to my pleasant surprise, a brand new vendor has arrived--our first local yarn and fiber vendor named Heidi, along with a couple of her goats (who seemed a bit overwhelmed) from her farm!! AND she has homeschool programs where the kids have hands-on learning classes on gardening and caring for llamas, goats, chickens, ducks, and rabbits!!! She also has fiber workshops on wet felting, needle felting, and fiber dying!! I AM SO EXCITED!!
I just read in our paper where three more farmer's market have opened in our town. Our area is starting to get it too! I put up most of our food that we produce on our land. Even though I don't eat meat my family does, so my husband and sons hunt and fish, crab and shrimp and crawfish. I have been trying to find a good
ReplyDeletemilk cow, but that is turning out to be harder than I thought. I will keep looking as I know somewhere 'Olive' the cow is waiting for me.
Warmly,
Tracey
That farmers market looks great. I don't think I've seen one as good as that here.
ReplyDeleteWe have a veg box delievered each week and find it a great way of eating less (but better sourced) meat and doing more interesting things with vegetables. Although I'm a little bored of the veg curry that we've eaten for three nights ! x
isn't it exciting!? it really is a movement. i blame barbara kingsolver, honestly. i think she talked some sense into a lot of good people who had just not really thought about or been taught about where their food comes from. such a legacy for your kids, that you are making this a goal. and how COOL about your local fiber arts homeschool find! that is stellar!
ReplyDeleteBuying local does really make the most sense. It is confusing to me how I grew up without knowing about that type of stuff. How lucky our kids are to understand how food is grown and where it comes from!
ReplyDelete:)Lisa
Yay! It's so exciting to find local growers! We can't find much this time of year but in the summer we've finally been moved from the wait list to actually members of one of the few local CSAs. I'm excited!
ReplyDeleteWish I could join you for a needle felting class!
You totally need to set up a field trip and/or class for our group. Contact me and I'll post it!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds awesome. For some reason there aren't a whole lot of Farmer's markets in my town. There is one set up by Whole Paycheck and another town one which is very small. I will keep searching.
ReplyDeleteHow great to find local growers and that fiber lady homeschool programs! How fun that would be!
ReplyDeleteMJ, I think more and more people are starting to 'get it' around here too. I love our little market and am so thankful for how it complements our own efforts.
ReplyDeleteAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle was a turning point for me too. I read it as we hoped by the old farmhouse and waited and waited to sell our city home. I think I dreamed of gardens every night! : )
The fiber lady program sounds fantastic! Yippee!!
~Andrea~
I think we would definitely starve if I tried to feed our family from home grown produce. I too have noticed a rise in the frequency of farmers markets popping up in our local area, so I'll have to check them out.
ReplyDeleteI doubt I'd find a fiber lady(complete with goats) in Liverpool, but I'll let you know.
Oooh, I love the photos! And the fiber lady - how exciting!
ReplyDeleteI am excited to eventually move our family to someplace where more people "get it", but in the meantime, things seem to be improving here slowly as well! We finally have a local company growing hydroponic lettuce, and a local farm growing organic herbs, but that's the only organic produce grown locally. I hope it catches on!
~oh my
ReplyDelete~yarn AND beets at the same farmer's market!!
~I would have died and gone to heaven:0)
~after I had bought both,obviously!!