Green Options

The sustainability mantra may be “less is more,” but there’s one exception when buying more makes green sense:  shopping the last farmers markets.  If you’re not gardening and growing your own produce, your local farmers market serves as your easy connection to one-stop local fare shopping.

But as frosts linger and the cold winds start to blow, don’t punt and think your fresh local bounty will disappear till spring.  With a little strategic shopping and planning, you can preserve a local meal focus all winter long by taking advantage of those last farmer’s markets.

Here’s another perk of eating local year round:  you’re supporting the economic health of your community.  Just ask Cindy Torres, manager of the Longmont Farmers Market outside Boulder, Colorado, and an IATP Food and Society Fellow.  Passionate about using local food systems as a healthy economic development tool, Torres co-founded the Boulder County Food and Agriculture Policy Council to look at how her area can increase the local food supply to enhance the lives of community residents of all economic backgrounds.

“With a little bit of planning and preparation, we can readily eat local till the spring markets start up again,” explains Torres.  Here are her favorite five tips:

For those who regularly shop the local farmers’ market, the last markets of the season serve up bittersweet emotions. On one hand, the amazing abundance of the fall harvest packs the stalls, from apples to acorn squash. Yet there’s also this rampant feeling of sad emptiness akin to the emotive last day of summer camp. We realistically know the growing season, at least for most parts of the country, is quickly heading to the seasonal end and our days of fresh local bounty sit numbered.

Or do they? With a little strategic planning and stock-up shopping at the final farmers’ markets, you can create your own mini market at home, continuing to savor those local flavors through the dead of winter.

Just ask Cindy Torres, manager of the Longmont Farmers’ Market outside Boulder, Colorado. Torres passionately works toward helping people, particularly county commissioners, make the connection between a healthy local food system and healthy economic development. She co-founded the Boulder County Food and Agriculture Policy Council and serves as a Food and Society Policy Fellow.

“With a little bit of planning and preparation, we can readily eat local till the spring markets start up again,” explains Torres. Here are her favorite five tips: