eating locally

berry!, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

For the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of research on eating locally, supporting family farms that grow produce and raise livestock on a small scale. In the process I’ve found a few helpful websites:

—Local Harvest: You can search for Community Supported Agriculture programs for your region

–Find a Community Garden near you and grow your own organic food!

–website of the 100 mile Diet, moderated by the authors of Plenty.

–Barbara Kingsolver’s new book about eating locally: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

–For those who are interested in taking on the challenge to eat locally, I highly recommend subscribing to the “Eat Local Challenge” blog.

–For you who live near me (in SoCal), here are some links for some fabulous local foods: Winchester cheese (their super-aged Gouda is to-die-for), Temecula olive oil, and South Coast Farms (which is the best local CSA source, IMO)

My biggest problem in trying to source all of our family’s food locally is wheat. I know that wheat is grown within 100 miles of our home, but I can’t find any place to purchase the wheat. Does anyone have any ideas for me on how to do this??

UPDATE: The National Center for Home Food Preservation (for canning, pickling, etc all of that locally grown good-ness)

Also, see JohnH’s writeup of our local eating adventure last Sunday.

UPDATE #2: A list of OC Certified Farmers Markets with tons of seasonal recipes(!) included