If you're into boosting your health and really knowing where your food comes from then, you're likely to do a large portion of your shopping from a farmer's market. What a HUGE advantage it is to have conversations with the person or representative who raises and produces the food that we eat. This is a really big deal! What we consume affects our health whether we know it or not. So being able to shop with confidence and knowing exactly how the food is processed is critical to your well being.
I'll share three tips that just might sway you into doing all or most of your grocery shopping at your local farmer's market if you don't already.
But first, let's take a trip along the Hudson river to Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
...to meet Cecile Harrison and her son of Cowberry Crossing Farm
in Claverack, NY.
I love Cecile and her husband Richard's ethics and have been buying from them for about a year now. I can truly say that her meats are delicious and raised humanely. They also grow organic produce.
I am a big fan of their beef. It's the best that I've ever tasted (as I eat one of their burgers while I type). This burger tastes like a steak! It's very flavorful. Their beef is 100% grass fed and grass finished. I also buy their beef marrow bones for stews. Every time that we cook with beef bones from Cowberry Crossing farm you would think that we were baking a cake. The whole house gets infused with the smell of baked goods. Seriously, I'm not joking! Now, when we're not able to buy from the farm and have to go to _ _ (you know that well named "healthy" alternative grocery store), the bones there do not compare at all and of course, we do not get that wonderful baked goods smell.
Cowberry Crossing Farm is both certified biodynamic and organic which means that along with not using pesticides, hormones, GMO's or antibiotics, they practice balancing the health of the soil of the farm in proportion with the animals and plants raised and grown.
Yesterday at the market Cecile and I spoke about soy in animal feed in general and how animals grow faster with the addition of soy. We also spoke about drinking water quality. How cool is this---to be able to casually learn and exchange first hand information from your farmer at a farmer's market. I am not able to have this experience at a grocery store. The more that we have these conversations the more our farmer's can learn what concerns us and possibly tailor their farming to our needs. Try asking any of the large food companies that support GMO's and toxic chemical processing to change their ways. Change starts locally and grows nationally. So it's better to support practices that have your best interest.
So here are 3 reasons to shop at a farmer's market:
1) Shop with confidence: Get to know the farmer who raises or grows the food that you eat
2) Support local farmers that have your best interest and eat local food
***All farms are not created equal, that being said a farmer's market provides the setting so that you can learn about different farming practices. If the information that you learn about from one vendor does not suite your needs then, definitely move on to another vendor's booth. Keep seeking until you find that positive exchange and good vibe from the person you are buying your food from.
3) Eat freshly picked or processed foods. At the market, you'll most likely have healthier choices of whole foods that are not commercially processed with toxic preservatives. Your food is not sitting on a grocery store shelf for days, weeks, months in aluminum cans soaking in the chemicals from the cans, or sitting in plastic containers that leach chemicals into your food.
Buy healthy food and shop with confidence! So, enjoy a day at the market, sip some apple cider and browse the selections, chat and ask questions. This is a very rewarding experience. We do have choices.
In the New York Hudson valley area? Connect with Cowberry Crossing Farm.
Have fun with fashion and a healthy life!
No comments:
Post a Comment