SHOPPING LOCAL IS THE PLACE TO START FOR GREAT INGREDIENTS
Cooking starts with choosing ingredients. The fastest way to improve a recipe is to start with the very best ingredients. Shopping local is one of the best ways to do that. When you buy produce at the farmers’ market, a farm market stand, a small specialty shop, or even get it from your own garden, you get produce that is fresh and grown for flavor. That’s where you will find the best tasting produce.
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FARMERS’ MARKETS
Local growers have the advantage of growing varieties for taste rather than for shipping and shelf life, and the difference can be enormous.
If you shop at the farmers’ market, you will be getting produce that is fresh, just picked, ripe and in season, and probably organic as well.
As an added bonus, when you buy from local producers you are helping employ people in your neighborhood.
And if that isn’t enough, you are leaving a smaller carbon footprint when you buy produce that has not been shipped for hundreds of miles.
Check out our posts about farmers’ markets.
Find a farmers market in your area: local farmers’ markets
FARM STAND
A trip to a farm stand can be a fun outing and remind you of where the food actually comes from.
The farm stand is located right on the field where the produce is grown, so it doesn’t get more “farm to table” than that.
You will obviously be shopping local, buying produce that is just picked and in season, and helping the local economy.
Check out our posts about farm stands.
Find a local farm market stand in your area: farm market stands
SMALL SPECIALTY SHOPS
Small specialty shops make the community more interesting and shopping more fun.
There are a lot of ways that small businesses help a community and a local economy. But, let’s be honest, the real reason we keep going back to those cute little shops is that the quality is just better.
Check out our posts about small specialty shops below.
