Summer in New England has proven to be an excellent time to work on eating more locally grown food. I knew about the economic, environmental, and health benefits of eating locally, but there are a few more abstract ones that I have been pleasantly surprised about.

It makes cooking much more fun.
I’ve had the privilege of babysitting a couple organic gardens this summer. It was not at all as hard as I thought it would be, and home grown produce is the tastiest kind. Bringing my hand-picked goodies home to cook with was my favorite part. I love to cook, which is probably due to my mom’s influence. (She’s a kitchen guru!) It’s great looking up recipes to use for whatever we happened to have from the gardens that day. “Fresh & Honest”, a book by Chef Peter Davis of Henrietta’s Table in Cambridge, MA, has been a great source of inspiration. 

It makes grocery shopping enjoyable.
Farmer’s markets and farm stands are a great place to buy food guaranteed to be local, fresh, and delicious.  It’s also a great way to meet new people and see old friends.  In addition to produce you can usually find baked goods, honey, meat, craft, and freshly cut flowers. Sometimes there is live music and local artists selling their work. It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll be able to find a glass of home made lemonade or iced tea that blows Starbucks away. It’s really a more social, wholesome way to do your grocery shopping. You can find most farmers markets online or in local listings. In Massachusetts, FarmFresh.org is a great resource. LocalHarvest.org is a safe bet nationally for all kinds of local food.

It brings adorable feathered pets into your backyard.
This June we added six little peeping chicks to our family. They’re almost fully grown now, and the hens will start laying soon. We’re a bit too emotionally attached to eat the chickens, but we will certainly enjoy eating their eggs. We’ve raised chickens before, so I know from experience that fresh eggs are the best kind of eggs. In addition to providing breakfast, the chickens are much better pets than most would imagine; they’re funny to watch interact with each other, and love to be pet. They’re relatively easy to keep, although they do need an enclosed space that will protect them from predators. BackYardChickens.com is a great place to get started if you’re interested in learning more about keeping a flock of your own!