Let’s Talk “Shop”
No recipe for today, but plenty to come this week so don’t despair. I wanted to talk “shop” for a bit, as in what farm offerings you can anticipate when you shop in Weavers Way Co-op or at the Fair Food Stand in the Reading Terminal Market. Farmer Dave has been so kind as to provide a crop availability overview for the farm. For those of you that don’t have the good fortune of being located close enough to partake in our particular patch of farm goodness, you can use this harvest list as a gauge for what might be in season in farmer’s markets near you if you live in southern PA, DE, NJ or northern MD.
2007 Season Crop Availability.pdf
If you’re not able to buy from Weavers Way, I highly encourage you to seek out local farms in your area. Buying local is not only important for the local farming community and economy, but it also gives you, the shopper, a superior product. For example, last night I was making peach shortcake but hadn’t had the luck of finding local peaches on short notice. At my grocery store, I found what seemed to be nicely ripened peaches so I felt they’d do the trick even if they had come from California. When I got them home, I was shocked at how stubborn they were to give up their skins even though they were perfectly ripe. After marveling over their tenacity for a minute, I realized what the problem was. These peaches had been bred to handle any amount of abuse on the 1,000+ mile journey they’d be taking to get to some mass market. No doubt they weren’t handled gently from picking to shipping to display. These peaches had to be TOUGH. While I applaud the modern marvel of indestructible peach skin that won’t come off even when it’s suppose to, I am very certain this engineering of our food chain is not for the best. The flavor and juice of a tree ripened peach is not meant to last more than a few days, let alone a few thousand miles. Trust me, buy local and your palate will thank you.
The week of July 16th is Buy Fresh Buy Local Week. Celebrate by visiting a farm/market near you!
Here is a link to Local Harvest, an online directory for farms, farmers markets, and other small agricultural businesses in the United States.
