Putting Theory Into Practice

The last couple of weekends have had my wife and I seeing films like Food, Inc, and Fresh.  As anyone who has read my blog can tell, they have made a pretty big impact on me.  We already were moving toward getting much more organic food...but now are trying to do that combined with getting more local fare.

We went to the local farmer's market, and found  a lot of good things...even during the winter session:

There was a lot of produce...and very cheap.  For around ten dollars, we were able to buy all of the produce I have in the  pictures below...plus mushrooms (which is really what drove it up to about ten).  It was not all organic, but it was all locally grown and fresh.

You cannot really tell in this picture...but the yams are quite big.

These two heads of lettuce were small...but they taste very good.

Yes, I do like brussel sprouts. These were very tasty.

We stopped by farmer Nick (recommended to us by the Chicago Gardner). He runs his farm much like Salatin does - with the mobile hen coops, pasture fed pigs and cows, and the like.  We paid probably close to double what we would for a whole chicken at the grocery store - but this chicken was easily twice as big.  We also bought a ham steak from him - which we are putting into a split pea soup.  To give you an idea of what a difference treating food the right way makes - my wife does not like pork that much.  With everything that has been going on, we haven't even had "ham" in a very long time.  She took one taste of this - and said that this was how ham was supposed to taste.  I have to agree. It was some of the best ham I have ever tasted.

Guess we'll be going back again. :)

The only problem I am seeing, is the farmer's market is only open until December 19th.  After that, we will have to go to the local grocery stores and see what we can get.  Next year..there will be more freezing and canning - I'm sure.