Top Ten Reasons to Buy Your Produce at Magicland Farms
On the Eat Local Challenge website, I stumbled upon a list of ten reasons to eat local. These reasons make a great straightforward case for buying from your local farmer (Magicland Farms). You can check out the whole post at this link, but here is a quick summary, with my comments:
1. Eating local means more for the local economy. This just seems to make sense. When you buy from a local source, your money stays in your local area which helps keep the local economy moving.
2. Locally grown produce is fresher. At our stand, we pick every day, several times a day. Compare that to a grocery store where their produce is shipped in after being picked when?
3. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tasted a just picked tomato vs. a store bought one? The difference is remarkable. Or a store bought strawberry vs. a Magicland Kids strawberry? I used to think I hated strawberries, having only tasted the ones sold in the local grocery chain in Chicago. It wasn’t until I got here in Michigan that I realized the difference in taste. Need I say more?
4. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Produce bought at the grocery stores is oftentimes picked before it is ripe in order to withstand the rigors of shipping. Our produce is allowed to ripen on the vines, thereby giving you the best product we can provide.
5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. The organic food in the store is shipped in from far away places including overseas. What is the impact on the environment?
6. Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. Because of the grocery stores and the year round availability of most produce, consumers today don’t know what is in season. For example, while I am down at the stand, I have to explain to customers why we don’t have Fuji apples in June and conversely why we do have Quinte apples in July. (Quinte ripen here in mid July while Fuji not until Halloween.) Fruits and vegetables all have their seasons and learning when that is enables to you buy the freshest best tasting produce you can find.
7. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Get to know us when you visit. Learn how we grow things, how we choose what we grow, what our motivation is, learn about us. We have lots of stories to tell!
8. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. I would add to this that buying local also helps avoid most of the contamination problems of recent months, including the peanut salmonella problem currently going on and the pepper/tomato e.coli contamination scare of last year. But bio-terrorism is also a legitimate concern.
9. Local food translates to more variety. We grow a lot of things that stores are not interested in since they concentrate on mainly the most popular varieties (Red Delicious apples are a good example). We have the freedom to grow things that you wouldn’t find in the grocery store. For example, we have close to 100 different varieties of apples (modern varieties and antique) in our orchard, many different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. We grow around 20 different varieties of sweet corn. All of these varieties have their own flavor and story. We don’t only grow green beans, but french filet beans and yellow wax beans. Our peppers reflect the colors of the rainbow, everything from white to orange to red to purple to green. I could go on but I think you understand my point.
With just the heirloom tomatoes and the apples, many of our customers get great enjoyment out of trying the different varieties and finding out how different they each taste while settling on their favorites.
10. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. As long as Magicland Farms is in business, you know the land won’t be developed or transformed into something that destroys the rural nature of our area.
So there are lots of benefits to buying local. Hope to see you down at the stand this summer.
Annemarie on February 20th 2009 in Buy Local
Lenetta @ Nettacow responded on 10 May 2009 at 10:41 pm #
> 5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic.
This doesn't exaclty tie in, but as you may be finding out, that doesn't usually keep me quiet. :>) Also, my comments are based solely on what Hubs has told me – I have been listening and asking questions for the past 7 years but there's a LOT that I don't know.
That said, I'd like to try to do some research of some sort on the sustainability of organic farming (and I include grass fed livestock, etc.). I believe there's definitely a place for it, I believe to a degree that it's healthier, and I *don't* knock anyone who has determined it to be the best way to feed their family.
For a short while, I ordered from the Azure Standard co-op and they made it sound like it's absolutely crazy that not everybody farms organically because the yields are *better* than traditional farming, etc. I can sort of believe that, until you get a fungus or insect or such that wipes everything out for the year. Or two years, or five.
We hear so much about food shortages, and I believe a good deal of it is political in third world countries (which means nothing to those that are hungry). I've also read that the food supply is going to have to increase dramatically to meet the demand over the coming decades. So what really is the best way – meaning cheapest and healthiest and likely a host of other words that end in "est" – to feed the world?
This is sort of a rhetorical question, and please don't feel like you have to answer in corresponding length to my question! If you could boil your views down to a paragraph or two, though, I'd definitely be interested in hearing it. And actually, if you really don't have time to answer me at all, I'd love to just hear a simple sentence on your thoughts. (I subscribe to comments when I post one so you can put it here if you'd like.)
I'm enjoying your archives and learning a ton!