Stock Up On Sustainability: Five Tips to Shop the Final Farmers Market and Eat Local All Winter (Recipe Included)
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 a Food and Society Policy 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:
