How to buy from a local farmer

There are so many slogans in the food industry that promote buying local. I am sure you have heard some of them, at least one of them.

Support your local farmer

Locally grown

Fresh from the farm

Friend a farmer, eat locally

Farm to table

and the list goes on....

There are so many great reasons to do all the above.

- You will receive the freshest produce, meat, bread, etc.
- You are buying local and supporting your local farmers, therefore keeping profits within your community.
- Eating healthy.
- Knowing where your food comes from.
just to name a few.

But you may be wondering how to buy from a local farmer? 

I will share with you a tips on how to find a local farm near you with some great resources that are in our farmers market sector of the agriculture industry. The technology that we have at our fingertips allows us to find what we are looking for easily. These resources will do just the above to help you in

Supporting your local farmers by eating locally grown and bringing your food straight from the farm to the table! 

So how can you buy from local farmers?
A lot of the times your hometown grocery stores or even larger grocery store chains will have locally grown produce for sale for shoppers to buy. Here in Indiana, we are able to grow a variety of produce during the peak season and local grocery stores like to provide locally grown products for their consumers to purchase. There will usually be signs on the the produce that is grown locally simply stating "Locally Grown."  If you're shopping at the grocery store, be sure to purchase those locally grown fruits and vegetables when they are available.
You can also seek out your local farmers markets!

You may be wondering how do you find out about local farms in your area.

There is a great resource website where you can find farms all over the United States! 

Local Harvest 

There are several ways to search on Local Harvest. Farmers can have their own farm page on the Local Harvest website so it will be listed when a customer searches. So if you are wanting to find farmers markets in your area, simply enter in your zip code in the search bar on the top of the screen. It will bring up every farm and farmers market that is in your area. Searching for specific product in your area is also an option. 

Through Local Harvest you are also able to search just for farmers markets, farms, and CSA programs alone. The Local Harvest website will bring up searches for anything in the United States that the farmer has registered and entered for their farm on the page. 

So this can help you find a farmers market or several in your area for you to shop from. Local Harvest searches nation wide, but for this post I searched for Indianapolis with results of 20 farmers markets in the Indianapolis area.

You may want to support one of a few farmers on a more regular basis by supporting their CSA program. You can read more about the benefits of CSA here and here on my blog. If you haven't read my blog before you may not know, but my husband and I grow produce and pumpkins and we offer our own CSA in our area for our customers to participate in if they wish.  The Local Harvest website allows you to search just for specifically CSA programs in your area. Farms with CSA programs will appear and it can link you directly to that farm's website to read about their CSA more and possibly sign up for a subscription. CSA programs have become a popular way for consumers to buy local and its a great way to support farmers and really get to know the farmer and where your food comes from.

With technology these days, consumers also have access to what is called food hubs. Food hubs are where farmers and producers to get their products easily accessible to consumers. Food hubs provide the logistics on selling, collecting, and distributing the products that the consumers purchase on their online store (food hub). There are various food hubs all over the United States, but if you are in Indiana, specifically the Indianapolis area, a great one is FarmersMarket.com.  You simply go on to their website and order from several local farms and artisans. They collect the items for your order and distribute them via delivery to your home or pick up location that you have selected. How great is that! Fresh produce, meat, bread, etc delivered right to your door as much as weekly if you would like! This is a great option for you if you don't have time to visit the local farmers market each week but still want to purchase fresh local products.

If you are one that would like to shop at the farmers market, chit chat with the farmers and enjoy the atmosphere be sure to check out the Local Harvest website and search for a market near you!

Here in Indiana, there is a new program available to consumers while shopping the farmers markets. Developed by Purdue Extension, it is called Food Link. It will be a great resource for consumers to look up vegetables and fruits while shopping. The program is designed to connect consumers with useful information about their food choices with the use of their smart phones and the QR code cards displayed in the grocery store or at the farmers market. Each product has a card with a QR code on it. With the technology of our smart phones, simply scan the QR code with a QR code reader app.

The program will then bring up a link from the QR code to the product.
So for example I scanned the QR code for apple. Clicked on the link and am brought to a variety of information!!

The scientific name of the apple,
When it is in season,
Types of apples,
Pairings - so different things that pair well with apples,
Preparation - with even a video of apple cutting tips!!
Storage - for short term and long term,
Links for more information,
Food Link Recipes,
Pinterest Recipes,
A quick fact,
Nutritional information,
and even food safety tips.

How cool is that!! Through technology we are able to look up all that information with the simple scan of a code!! I have the QR Reader app on my phone and it even stores QR code history for you.

There might be other programs similar in other states, but this Food Link program really gives you a lot of information that is easily accessible at a quick glance! It is even implemented in some grocery stores around our state.

If you're not in Indiana, you can still benefit from the program by visiting the Food Link Resource page. You may have seen collard greens in the grocery store before, but not know much about them. Reference the resource page and find out all the information I listed above, but of collard greens. There are 61 different fruits and vegetables that have full resource pages on the website.

As I have mentioned before here and if you follow my blog, my husband and I grow produce and pumpkins and are vendors in our local farmers market. We have this program and are excited to implement it in our produce stand at the market. We plan to display the cards in our stand for easy access for our customers as well as have the Food Link brochure available.

With technology today all these programs really are helpful for us as growers. Consumers are looking for farms in their area and we are able to promote our farm and CSA using Local Harvest. We hope to become part of a food hub in the very near future as well. The Food Link program will be beneficial for us as we are at the farmers market. We often times get customers that haven't heard of a vegetable that we have available or maybe they have but not sure how to prepare it. Sometimes the market is busy so these produce cards will be great to help share information about specific produce, how to prepare it and recipes we can share with them as well.

This post is sponsored by Indiana Soybean Alliance,

 but thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. 

Summer rain affect on our produce

The summer of 2015 - a different one for sure. Midwesterners will remember this summer as one with lots of rain. Here in Northwest Indiana we got 21 inches of rain in 16 days. Crops sitting in standing water. Everywhere. At a critical part in the growing season also! Farmers have taken losses for sure.

Picking kale for CSAs after 4 inches of rain

As produce growers, we have gotten several questions asking "How has the rain affected your crops?"

At first, we really thought our produce field would be okay. It is in a sandier soil and wasn't sitting in standing water. A few dry days went by. The ground was still wet, but the vegetable plants still looked good. Then we got more rain, inches at a time, for several days. Even after the lengthy period of rain, it was too wet to get in to the fields to cultivate and take care of our plants. 

Getting a late start at planting due to the longer winter and so much rain really put a dent in our production. So much that we haven't attended our usual farmers markets this year. 

You take the challenges as they come. With the wet weather, we are thrilled that we have been able to still fulfill our weekly CSA deliveries, getting a nice assortment of produce, and still have enough for ourselves to enjoy each week and preserve for the winter. But just not a lot extra to have a good variety to take to the market.

The summer rain has also created an interesting harvesting schedule for our sweet corn. We planted 3 plantings of sweet corn, each two weeks apart. Due to the rainfall in June, our sweet corn will all be ready very soon.

Our biggest crop, pumpkins, had minimum wash out and are basically on schedule. We are looking forward to fall harvest. We will see closer to fall how things will look for our Fall Harvest Days.

Each year we don't know how the weather will be and we take each year as it comes. This year was just one of those years that created issues and we are working with what we have.

Where can you buy locally grown produce?

I am often asked about the produce we grow and our CSA program. Consumers are interested in how they can join our CSA or where they can purchase our produce. I am asked what farmers markets we attend. Our CSA program and our local farmers markets are where we sell our produce. We sell our produce directly the consumer.

We love to welcome new members to join our CSA program as it is a great way to experience a variety of produce throughout the growing season! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and I talk about the program and its advantages here. Our CSA is delivered in weekly shares and I talk about that here. We have a smaller CSA program, but happily deliver about 20 shares each week to our town and surrounding communities. We also encourage consumers to attend our local farmers market. To find a farmers market near you check out Local Harvest, and it will show you all the local markets close to you. 

By selling the produce we grow directly to the consumer it is nice to build a farmer-consumer relationship with our customers. We appreciate when they give us feed back. We love to hear recipes they share with us on how the prepared the produce purchased from us. 

We also grow pumpkins! In the fall we have what we call Fall Harvest Days, about 4-5 weekends the end of September to October depending on how the weekends fall. This is where we invite the public to come out to our farm and pick out pumpkins and join in some of the kids activities. We grow our pumpkins off site, about 2 miles from our farm, so everything is picked and brought to our farm for the Fall Harvest Days. We also sell fall decor that we grow ourselves, such as grouds in all shapes, color, and sizes, straw, shocks, Indian corn, as well as fall produce. We also sell our pumpkins and fall decor to some local shops and stores to sell to their customers. 

We are proud produce and pumpkin growers and look forward to the growing and market season each year! You can support our farm and farms like ours by attending your local farmers markets or looking into a CSA program near you. Also by doing your yearly creative pumpkin carvings and decorating for fall, you are supporting my farm and others like mine! 

Winter months for produce growers...

Produce growers provide fresh produce throughout the spring, summer, and fall months, but what goes on in the winter months?

The farmers markets may be over for the season, but produce growers still continue to work hard during the off season. Some farms continue to grow greens and other cold season crops in high tunnels throughout the winter. Others end their season around at the beginning of freezing temperatures. For example, our local market ends usually the beginning of October, but our fall CSA continues until mid-November. We then take the winter months "off" until our market and CSA start again. 

When the end of the season is near, our customers generally ask us, what were are going to do this winter or our time "off." As much as we love the busy production and market season, we welcome the end of the season as well. Life slows down just a little. It gives us time to prepare for the next season. So what do produce growers do in the winter months?

-Place the seed order for the upcoming year
-Maintenance on equipment
-The new season's planting schedule
-Maintenance or modifications to greenhouse structures
-Promote their CSA program and accept members
-Start seeds indoors for transplants

These are just a few of the things that goes on during the winter months for produce growers. Then there are the other projects or vacations that they haven't been able to get to during the busy growing season, like giving their kitchen a much needed face lift like we are doing here. More details on that later. 

I'm looking forward to sharing with you more about CSA programs and produce growing. Even on a smaller scale as we are, it is a very busy and fun adventure. 

Quick Refrigerator Pickles and Onions

I have eaten pickles and onions for many many years. I love recipes that I continue to make as an adult enjoying the same things that my mom and grandmas have made and continue to make.

Refrigerator Pickles and Onions, also called refrigerator pickles or pickled cucumber by others, are super quick and easy to make. There's no canning equipment required.

They are great to whip up and have on hand for a fast addition to your meals.

You only need a few ingredients and most are staples in the kitchen and the cucumbers and onions came from my garden. We have cucumbers and pickling cucumbers growing like crazy as well as sweet onions in the garden that we will be pulling soon to dry. So I grabbed a few and made up a few jars of pickles and onions to enjoy this week.

Ingredients 

 3-4 medium sized cucumbers, thinly sliced cucumbers - I prefer mine to be peeled, but you can leave the skin on if you'd like

1 small sweet onion sliced

1 cup water

1 cup white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

a little pepper for taste

Instructions  

1. Mix water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add cucumbers and onions to the mixture. Taste and adjust to your liking. Add more cucumbers or onions if you like more of either. 

2. Your cucumbers and onions should be covered with the brine mixture. If you want to make a large batch make up more brine to add. 

3. Place the mixture in containers in the refrigerator. The flavors blend together overnight, although I start eating as soon as I've made them. 

They can store in the refrigerator up to two weeks. I have been making several jars up on Sundays to last us the week then repeat again. Makes about 4 pint jars of pickles and onions.

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

The farmers markets are plentiful of cucumbers and onions at this time in the season. If you don't garden, go grab some up and make yourself this refreshing recipe. Now I'll go enjoy mine with my dinner. Enjoy!

Gardening with Kids

For those that have followed my blog, you know that we grow produce, have a small CSA program, and are vendors at our local farmers market.

With this comes many hours in the garden! My farmer also works an outside job, so we gather up any available time during the summer months and spend time working in the garden. We have things growing in three different locations. Pumpkins, sweet corn, squash, are over one place. Most of our vegetables are another place, and a mix of things are grown at our house. The kids and I spend many hours of the day being outside, they play and I weed. The kids will go back and forth from playing to help weed for a while, then go back to play.

When we started growing produce in 2006, we started with just a few acres. We have added more every year to where we are now. We have a small greenhouse where we do our seeding to grow the vegetables plants to transplant. We also have a coldframe. We are not large by any means but manageable for what we can handle right now, just the two of us. We grow roughly 4 acres of pumpkins and 6 of produce with hopes to build that up over time.

The kids come with us everywhere and are very much involved with what we do. They are in the gardens with us and attend the farmers market with us. I love how they are seeing the full rotation of the term "Farm to Fork."

The kids help us plant seeds, and transplants

They help weed and maintain the garden

They help pick the produce, clean and package it for CSA, and get ready for the farmers market

They go with us to the farmers market and visit with the customers

They enjoy eating what we have grown.

I love that we are teaching them to grown their own food. I love that they are seeing the complete turn around from planting a seed or plant, to picking the produce when ready, to possibly helping prepare the meal, and then eating it. Even selling the produce we have grown to others for them to eat.

Gardening with your kids is a wonderful summer project. Something for them to get excited about and look forward to. It is always fun for them to check on the garden and see how the plants are growing and if they are producing yet, how produce is growing, and if it is ready to harvest.

Try growing some of these easy vegetables with your kids
-Green Onions
-Kale
-Green Beans
-Lettuce
-Radish
-Carrots
-Peas

Tips for Gardening with Kids

-Let your kids pick out the seeds they want to grow. When you go to the store or garden shop, show your kids the wide variety of seeds they can pick from. Let them help pick some out. Even if it may seem harder to grow, give it a shot. They will be more excited about the plants growing knowing they helped pick them out. Its a great way to get them to try new things as well.

-Let them be a part of the planting and watering process. This is a great time to explain to them how things grow from a tiny seed. Explain to your kids how the seeds need water and sun to grow. They will see how they are helping as the plants grow and start producing. It's always fun to get wet too on those hot days while watering :).

-Let them help harvest the vegetables. This answers that question to "where does our food come from" moment for them. They are able to see that their potatoes come out of the ground and you have to dig to get to them. Or that you wait until the tomato turns red to pick it off the plant. Or that the peppers need to be a little bit bigger. They will feel the sense of accomplishment knowing they helped with the whole process.

-Let them eat the veggies raw and help prepare them for meals. Some kids may not like cooked carrots or cooked peas, but snacking on them from the garden raw they might enjoy them. Let them help you use those fresh veggies they just harvested from the garden and show how you are using them in your meals.

-Let them have fun and enjoy. Let them get dirty :) Get some kid's garden tools and garden gloves. Make DIY garden markers place by the plants in the garden.

Now back out to the garden we go.

This 'Gardening with Kids' series to be continued.......


This post is sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers but all opinions, photos, and ideas are mine.