It’s Tree Hugger Tuesday! Today’s topic is: local food
Did you know the average ingredient in your food has travelled 1500 miles to get there?
Did you know that even local, non-organic food is better for it’s effect on air quality and pollution than eating long-distance organic?
In addition to cutting the carbon footprint of your foods, eating local supports your economy. Your money goes directly back to the farmers!
In addition, local food tastes so much better! In many cases it was picked only a day or two beforehand.
The easiest way to eat local? Shop at a Farmer’s Market! Even if they’re only seasonal around you, there are probably a few weeks left. 
Even if your Farmer’s Market is closing soon, you can store many root vegetables throughout the Winter!
For the past few weeks, I’ve been buying a bag of potatoes a week at the Farmer’s Market… and what we don’t eat that week, I’m storing for later on in the Fall/Winter!
And it’s easy Just place the potatoes in a cardboard box. (Don’t pack them in too tightly!) Store in a cool area. Check every few weeks to make sure no potatoes are spoiling (if one in a box goes, they all will. Peer pressure!)
Don’t store potatoes in plastic bags, or they won’t have enough air to breathe, and they’ll spoil.
You can store lots of vegetables for a long time:
- onions
- carrots
- parsnips
- winter squash
What’s your favorite local food? Here in Alberta, I love corn on the cob at this time of the year!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
LOVE this post! I totally agree. Organic is good but local is GREAT. Yesterday my BF was saying how he can’t believe how much better-tasting my CSA goodies are. I was telling him, “yeah that’s because those grapes you’re eating? they were in the ground yesterday. the ones at the store? were picked a week ago, under-ripe, from Chile.” Oh and I’m super-lucky because a locally grown food around me? Avocados
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It’s chile pepper season in TX. I look forward to it all year.
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Thanks for this! My potatoes always go bad so fast.
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Wow, I had no idea you could store potatoes long term like that. What a great tip, thanks for sharing that with us!
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I’m so glad I just read this, I had my potatoes in a bag in the cupboard — great tip to store them in a box!!
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ohhhh i love this – i had no ideas some of those veggies could be stored for so long. also, i love the fact you are talking about being food responsible…its so much friendlier to eat local!
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Amen to local food! SLU is huge on eating locally, which is really exciting to me. To be honest, I didn’t know too much about this before seeing Food, Inc. this summer. Now, I fully support local food by shopping at the farmers’ market every weekend.
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farmers market carrots are amazing! they are so sweet!
thanks for all these tips!
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Allison that is such a useful tip thank you! I always just resign to that it’s too hard to eat local in Ontario in the winter, but that’s not true and I know it. A slap on the wrist for me.
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I just went apple picking. They’re so good straight off the tree!
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i agree. i will often buy local, even if it’s not organic. helps support our canadian economy, AND easier on the environment. if i don’t have a local choice, i will either not buy, or i will head straight for organic.
favourite local food? BLUEBERRIES in August. I have about 60 lbs. stored away for winter.
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