Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Nancy Babbitt <nbabbitt2003@mac.com>]

Ah, yes.  Eat local & in season.  It's one thing to know that we SHOULD eat this way, and quite another to learn how.  Not until more people know how, will they actually be able to do it.

I purchased a new cookbook, Simply in Season is the title.  

Simply in Season features eating and using local, seasonal foods like our grandparents did in wholesome, delicious dishes. Today most people make no connection with the time of year and season to place or location of food. And, unfortunately, if they wanted to, most wouldn't know how. Through stories and simple whole food recipes, Simply in Season, helps to make these connections.

Six reasons to eat simply in season

Freshness - Locally grown fruits and vegetables are usually harvested the same day as they are purchased. Produce from across the country can't be that fresh.

Taste - Produce picked and eaten at the height of freshness has more flavor. Taste the difference.

Nutrition - Fresh, fully ripe produce contains more nutrients than food that is past its peak of freshness or was harvested before it ripened fully.

Variety - Farmers selling locally are not limited to the few varieties that are bred for long distance shipping, high yields, and shelf life. Often they raise and sell wonderful unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.

Environment - The environmental impacts of growing and shipping produce, sometimes halfway around the world, are enormous.

Local Health - Buying seasonal produce from your farmers' market or from neighborhood farms supports your local economy, increasing the local quality of life for everyone.

I'd love to know of other such books.  Another favorite cookbook of mine is More With Less cookbook.  It has many recipes from scratch, from simple ingredients - a skill that many young people do not have, and could benefit from.  We'd all benefit.

Simply in Season is a cookbook that, in my opinion, all small farmers should offer for sale to their customers along with their produce.  The Weston A Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) promotes  a Traditional diet, which includes the concept of eating locally and in-season.  Some might be interested in this organization.

Forgive me, if these suggestions have already been posted, I do not have enough free time to read all posts that come through.

Nancy

On Oct 1, 2006, at 2:16 PM, TradingPostPaul wrote:

"... our food system has major flaws which point to one reoccurring theme:

too much of our food is produced by centralized, industrial concerns...  I

still hold that until we diversify and decentralize our food growing system

and learn to eat locally and seasonally, we only open up ourselves for more

of the same." - Alton Brown