Farmer's Market

Oh, how I love summer!!!! And, one of my favorite things about summer is the Farmer's Market!! The boys love to go too! We've made friends with a couple of local farmers who they love to talk to. And, they love to go to the booth that sells honey because the farmer has bees behind glass and the boys love to sit and watch the busy bees making honey!

But the best part about the Farmer's Market is all the fresh, local and YUMMY produce! I let the boys pick out what looks good to them and they get excited about eating vegetables! From our friends at NV Ranch, we picked up a pound of freshly picked organic strawberries, 3 chickens, and 2 dozen farm fresh eggs this week! You can't beat the taste (and nutrition) of local food. So, please support your local farmers and shop your farmer's markets!

A couple of years ago, we used to shop the markets just as a way to enjoy some great tasting produce occasionally. But, as I have learned more and more about industrial food and what is sold in the grocery stores under the guise of being "food," it disgusted me. And, slowly I began to realize that 90% of what is in the grocery store, is merely a mixed bunch of highly processed, chemical laden ingredients, put into pretty packages so consumers will buy it. Sure...its easy to open a box of Pop Tarts for breakfast or just add water to a package of Knorr noodles for a quick side dish, but is that what you should really be eating? Milk is full of growth hormones and antibiotics. And, meat (steak, pork chops, chicken, ground beef, etc.)....let's not even discuss it right now. I promise, if you knew what was in it or how it was processed, you wouldn't buy it. The other day, I read the label on a Lunchable...why is there over 50 ingredients in turkey, cheese and crackers?

Even the produce is less than ideal. Because farmers have overworked and destroyed the soil with pesticides and fertilizers, the USDA has done studies to show that today's fruits and veggies are less nutritious than they were 50 years ago. You would have to eat 3 apples today to equal the nutrients of 1 apple in 1940. Its sad, isn't it. We're dealing with an epidemic of malnutrition right here in our own country and people don't even know it. And, our diets have caused a huge spike in all sort of diseases like Type II diabetes, cancer, ADHD, and (though they haven't proven it yet) in my opinion, autism. Something is causing this rapid rise in autism right now. It makes sense to me that it is environmental. The new statistic is 1 in every 58 kids. C'mon people.

Ok...I could go on and on...but I'll get off my soapbox. But, please take time to educate yourselves on what we have done to our food system in this country. Support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, buy organic and local, watch Food, Inc., and most of all, support your local farmers who are producing some of the most delicious, organic, and sustainable produce/meat/dairy you can buy. And, did I mention it tastes better than anything you'll find at the grocery store???

So, now you know what we're eating this summer!