Summer Shopping

This is why I love to shop at farmer's markets and farm stands in the late spring, summer and fall. With the exception of the lemons and limes in the background, all of the items in this picture were sourced from within 10 to 20 miles of my house.

Just look at all of that color! I had to take a picture while I was putting items away from our CSA farm share pick-up today because it started to looked like a piece of art there on my counter.

Pictured from the left are purple and green basil which came in our farm share this week. Hoop house tomatoes, some were in the share, some I purchased so that I could make a sauce. Behind the light purple Beatrice eggplant are fresh eggs. They come in a variety of colors ranging from light green to light brown. PJ likes to choose the color of his egg shell for scrambled eggs. These eggs are from Springdell Farm where we belong to their CSA. The cut flowers are a summer treat to myself, I picked these up on Wednesday along with the Beatrice eggplant from Verrill Farm in Concord, Ma. The peaches, blueberries, green beans and carrots were all a part of our share for this week among a variety of other goodies including summer squashes, cucumbers and corn! I will be doing some freezing of vegetables this weekend in addition to sharing some things with my neighbors. I suspect we will enjoy some peach and blueberry cobbler this weekend and if everything works out I will top it off with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

The little yellow blob you see between the carrots and the basil is a fresh loaf of three cheese bread from the bakery at Whole Foods...one of my few supermarket purchases this week. On Monday after my meditation class, I slipped into Whole Foods to buy some fish and a few other staples. They were sampling this bread in the bakery that day. The little piece I had was moist and cheesy. I nearly bought a loaf that day, but was glad I waited because it will compliment the London Broil and Swiss Chard I am making for dinner tonight.

As I have been writing this blog, I realize how fortunate I am to live where I live. We are surrounded by farms and farmland and Massachusetts has made a commitment to preserving and supporting agriculture in our state. In his article entitled, "Agriculture in Massachusetts: Green and Growing," Commissioner Scott J. Soares reports that there

"are nearly 7, 700 farms providing locally grown food and other agricultural products to Massachusetts residents from more than half a million acres of working landscapes that provide aesthetic enjoyment and positive economic impact to the tune of nearly $500 million in farm revenue alone annually (Edible Boston, p. 61)."

He goes on to report that the loss of farmland acres or conversion to non-farm use has been leveling off since 2002 and that 64,000 acres of farmland has been preserved through the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program.

For me, these facts mean that I'm not the only one who cares about where her food comes from which means that support for locally grown food is a priority making it more widely available.