Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

    Veggie Trader: A Craigslist for Local Produce
    John Chappell, Green Options
    www.care2.com, USA | Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:00 PM ET
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/care2-veggie-traders-produce.html

How great would it be if there were want ads in your local newspaper or on 
Craigslist for organic fruits and vegetables, grown in your town, by your 
neighbors? A new website - Veggie Trader has sprung up that offers exactly 
such a service–a purchasing and bartering clearinghouse for locally grown 
fruits and vegetables.
Veggie Trader: Trade, Buy or sell Local Homegrown Produce

Veggie Trader describes itself as the "place to trade, buy or sell local 
homegrown produce." The idea is simple: you register on the website and then 
offer to purchase, sell, or trade any manner of surplus fruits or vegetables. 
If you have too many tomatoes and want to see if anyone nearby has a surplus 
of peaches or peppers, you can log on, run a search, and find out who in the 
neighborhood may be willing to exchange with you.

It's a great way to offload additional produce and exchange it for something 
that you might be unable to grow in your own yard, but that another gardener 
may specialize in growing. It's totally free to join, and costs nothing to 
post an offering, or place a wanted listing.

The website only started four months ago, and is definitely still in its 
infancy. Despite that, they have over 6,000 people signed up so far. The 
folks who have registered thus far are concentrated on the U.S. West Coast in 
California and Oregon, but since the website is still starting out, it could 
very well extend to your neighborhood. You can help make the website grow by 
registering and offering to buy, sell, or trade for whatever produce you have 
or may want.

Veggie Trader has ambitions to expand to include dairy, eggs, and meat, all 
items that are heavily regulated. The future may hold great things for Veggie 
Trader, only time will tell if the site can attract enough members to gain 
enough momentum to make a difference in the local food movement, but we're 
certainly rooting for them.

Click on any of the following links for recipes that are great with local 
produce: Tomato Bread Salad, Grilled Peaches, Arugula, and Goat Cheese Salad, 
Grilled Apriums with Mascarpone, Roasted Eggplant with Mint, Cucumber Dip 
with Fresh Dill, Grilled Cheese with Spring Onions & Escarole

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