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I buy very local eggs, honey, some vegetables and maple syrup. I even buy local beer. However most of what we eat is bought at a supermarket.
I tried a garden and it produced really good tomatoes and peppers. Then a fungus settled into its happy living site so I quit gardening. I realized the stuff that kills fungus can easily kill me so I stopped. Now the garden grows flowering ground cover and semi wild tulips and iris.
Well, for starters, it means not buying anything from Amazon.
I'm not sure what's unclear about the concept. I think most people understand the difference between shopping at Walmart vs. a neighborhood mom-and-pop place. I don't know why more people don't realize the benefit of trying to favor local independent businesses. Especially since places like Amazon and Walmart have such awful reputations.
Some friend and myself had this conversation this morning because of where we live, people here to tend say they buy local but in all reality they are not. Most of no concept of what that even means. It's more of a trend around here to say that you support local
What does that mean exactly? Does it mean buying from your local store? Farmers market?
We live about 30 mins from Asheville, NC which people here tend to buy local and support local business.
These days nothing really seems to be local, I'm not sure you can count your store down the street as local anymore. Nothing you buy is local it's all from some where else these days. We are in the process of having our own garden for veggies and some fruits.
We have a local farm down the road that we buy our meats from as well. Buying REAL local foods/goods can be more expensive in the end but for us we feel that it's worth it. I will admit there are some things you can't buy that are not local, and it can't be helped.
Local food co-ops tend to buy from farmers in the region. I'm not sure if "buying local" goes beyond that, to buying locally-made furniture and other household goods. Where do hardware stores get their goods? I don't think it's possible to buy everything locally. Sheets, towels, and other items are of necessity trucked from out-of-state, usually. What about the computer you're using? Was it made locally?
Some friend and myself had this conversation this morning because of where we live, people here to tend say they buy local but in all reality they are not. Most of no concept of what that even means. It's more of a trend around here to say that you support local
What does that mean exactly? Does it mean buying from your local store? Farmers market?
We live about 30 mins from Asheville, NC which people here tend to buy local and support local business.
These days nothing really seems to be local, I'm not sure you can count your store down the street as local anymore. Nothing you buy is local it's all from some where else these days. We are in the process of having our own garden for veggies and some fruits.
We have a local farm down the road that we buy our meats from as well. Buying REAL local foods/goods can be more expensive in the end but for us we feel that it's worth it. I will admit there are some things you can't buy that are not local, and it can't be helped.
When it comes to produce and meat we do our best to only buy local. When it is canning time and we do not have enough produce in our yard for what we are canning we have a couple of farms we visit. I love the idea I am buying fresh, I am supporting my neighbor even if the farms are 20 miles away and I like the prices. When just buying for daily use, we depend on the farmers market 90% of the time and if we can't gt our meat from the farmers market we try to buy form local producers. I am. not going to claim we always buy local cause that isn't likely for anyone, but we do as often as possible. I know you mention it can be more expensive, we find it cheaper most of the time. Our local chicken producers have small stores with great prices, our local farms sell at a great price because they sell direct and even our small farmers markets can be cheaper. The other day I got 5 beets for $2 and I thought that was high: well I weighed 5 at our local grocery store, they were similar in size but would have cost about $3. The same with turnips and green onions.
Cida, you mention buying via Amazon; you are right of course we all know that, but remember not everything we need can be purchased from local businesses. Amazon as well as Wal-Mart do serve a purpose.
When visiting states for a possible retirement relocation, I went to a Farmers Market on the town square..........It was highly touted in the Chamber of Commerce brochure as " locally grown fruits and vegetables"
As I meandered around I struck up a conversation with a guy who had the largest stand and was doing the most business.
I found out most of his produce was from about 700 miles away.
Hardly a thing he was selling was from even that state.
He was what is known as a "jockey"..........( someone who buys and then re-sells )
A kick in the face to the actual local growers who were manning their small stands.
This is often the situation and it really ticks me off. I know some Farmers markets require the vendors to sell only locally grown produce from a distance of say, 50 miles or closer. I too had the experience you are talking about. I visited a small farmers market and the gal selling peaches told me she had picked them just the day before. That was fine except she had picked them about 200 plus miles away. The same with one I stopped who admitted she was the 3rd party and didn't know where the produce really came from. Mostly we use a very small farmers market that has only about 1/2 dozens vendors and they are all local.
NYCityrefugee; I had to smile when you talked about the stickers on the melons. We saw a little lady in Aldi's last summer buying melons. She bought 2 big boxes of them.When the checker asked her what she was planning on doing with all those melons,, she said I am going to make salad. The following week we saw the same lady buying dozens of mangos. I wonder how many people she has to make salad for? We all figured she was heading to one of the large farmers markets to set up a booth the next day, which would be Saturday.
Some friend and myself had this conversation this morning because of where we live, people here to tend say they buy local but in all reality they are not. Most of no concept of what that even means. It's more of a trend around here to say that you support local
What does that mean exactly? Does it mean buying from your local store? Farmers market?
We live about 30 mins from Asheville, NC which people here tend to buy local and support local business.
These days nothing really seems to be local, I'm not sure you can count your store down the street as local anymore. Nothing you buy is local it's all from some where else these days. We are in the process of having our own garden for veggies and some fruits.
We have a local farm down the road that we buy our meats from as well. Buying REAL local foods/goods can be more expensive in the end but for us we feel that it's worth it. I will admit there are some things you can't buy that are not local, and it can't be helped.
I have to say we have an agreement between our local farms (of which there are many in NJ, we are the Garden State for a reason though most people find that hard to believe) and the major supermarket chains, where they put an aisle called "Jersey Fresh" in their produce department that has a bounty of locally grown fruits and veggies. In the regular produce sections, they have a sign over the blueberries, corn, etc that is grown here to distinguish it from produce from other places. We have many, many stands on the roads and farm markets as well.
I would actually love to buy local meats, but ranches we don't have, and don't have a big enough freezer to buy in bulk. Eggs are find are getting increasingly easy, I've even worked in places where someone had chickens and would take orders for her eggs. The first time I got some from her, I came in to see them sitting on my desk, I panicked because they weren't in the fridge, and she had to remind me where they were that morning, lol. I had to get used to the colors, too.
I live in an area of Massachusetts where there are many CSAs. I prefer buying from them directly over getting my food at the farmer's markets. At the farmer's market, I buy from the CSA vendors first.
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