I wanted to share a great resource on the web: The Eat Well Guide. This is a great resource for anyone trying to eat more locally.  On their site you can search for local food by keyword, zip code, or city and state.  The advanced search allows you to be even more specific, searching by category, food, or even production method (Heirloom or Organic for instance.)

Another neat feature is their Eat Well Everywhere map.  It allows you to plan a trip to include local eats, no matter how far you roam, and then you can print it to take it with you when you’re finished.

There are some great brochures available to download on their site as well.  I personally recommend Cultivating the Web (just be sure you have plenty of toner if you plan on printing it, it’s a bit graphics intense!)  While you’re there, be sure to check out what others are doing on the Green Fork Blog.  There’s always something interesting to read there, and links to what’s making food headlines these days.

So there’s 100 more things to read over there, but don’t take MY word for it, go check it out for yourself!

One of the best places you can start looking for local food resources is at your county Extension office.  If you look up at the top of your screen, you’ll see a tabbed list of counties currently covered by  EatLocalTN.com.  On each page, you’ll find the link to the current extension office information for that county. (and a bunch of other nifty stuff, too!)

Or, If you’re looking for a different county’s extension office, try this map.

Here’s just a sampling of subjects your county Extension Agent can help you with:

• 4-H
• Food & Nutrition
• Lawn, Garden & Landscaping
• Master Gardener Program

Something else I picked up the other day at the Moore County Office was a TN Farm Fresh 2009 Directory.  Very handy little brochure.  I’m going to keep it in my car for when I’m out and about with my “road crew.”

Last week, I was introduced to someone as a local farmer.  While I was flattered, it sounded strange to me, and I almost corrected the misnomer.  I’ve often called myself a gardener, but farmer sounds so much more official.  Then I realized, maybe I am a farmer, after a fashion.  So I looked it up:

The Perfect Peach

Main Entry: farm·er

Pronunciation: \ˈfär-mər\

Function: noun

Date: 14th century

1 : a person who pays a fixed sum for some privilege or source of income
2 : a person who cultivates land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish)
3 : yokel, bumpkin

“farmer.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.

My garden May 2009

Hey, #2.  That’s me.  At least I hope that’s it, not a Yokel, or a Bumpkin!  But, cultivates land or crops?  Check! Check! Raises animals? Check!  HEY LOOK!  I AM A FARMER!  And if I can be, so can you.  Check out the pictures of my land and crops I cultivate, and the animals I raise.  My “farm” currently consists of four 4′ x 4′ raised beds, a 2′ x 4′ asparagus patch, a small herb garden, a 4′ x 6′ greenhouse, 40 chickens, 4 pet rabbits, 3 farm cats, 2 farm dogs, and a peach tree.  This small amount has enabled us to have something fresh on our table all year.  We do have five wooded acres, but no pasture, and it’s all very steep and hilly, so we will never have a traditional farm.  This year, we’re expanding the garden with the hope of growing most of our own vegetables, some of our fruit, and having a bit left over to sell at the farmers’ market.

How will we do that on bedrock with no topsoil?  With a kitchen garden built Square Foot Gardening style.  The only flat, sunny spot we have is the gravel/ muddy area right in front of the house where we park.  Yep.  I’m going to garden in the driveway.  If I can do that, surely you have somewhere you can garden this year, too.

Shakespeare and his ladies.

Here’s how.  You need to get your hands on a copy of the All New Square Foot Gardening.  I’d recommend you buy your own, as the library won’t like it if you return their copy all dirty, and it’s a definite take-it-out-with-you kind of book.  Not to mention you’ll want to use it as a reference over and over, so you might as well have one around.  Now, Mel recommends starting with a 4′ x 4′ raised bed, made out of 2 x 6 lumber.  I’m going to suggest you start with a 3′ x 6′ bed instead.  I have 4′ beds, and they are very hard for me to reach across (I have chronically short arms…)  You actually gain 2 sq. ft. of growing space this way, but the narrower box will be easier to reach across.  So.  Go to the lumber store, have them cut you some 2 x 6’s so you have 2 3′ lengths, and 2 6′ lengths.  Take these home, screw them together at the corners, and find a spot to put them.  (In your driveway, if needed.)  Once you have the box where you want it, put down a layer of newspaper as a weed barrier and fill you box with Mel’s Mix -1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost.  (It’s a SFG thing, read the book or check out the website, it will all make sense.)  At this point, to truly have a square foot garden, you’ll need to install some type of Grid over your box.  Please look at Mel’s website for more details on his grid system. Thanks, Mel!

I want to talk about planning and planting.  Now you have a box.  18 sq. ft. of gardening potential.  So, what should you plant in it?  One resource I ran across recently was this great Kitchen Garden Planner.  It has several already designed layouts to choose from, or you can create your own, and it will help you figure out your spacing, and number of plants required for each vegetable.  It essentially tells you what you will have just read in Square Foot Gardening, but, seeing tiny orange carrots will help you visualize what you’re going to end up with.  So, now you have a box, some “dirt” and a plan.  All you need now is a trowel, a bucket for water, something for a scoop, and some seeds.

Here’s a short list of seed catalogs/ websites to begin with:

Marianna’s Heirloom Seeds (Dickson, TN)

New Hope Seed Company (Bon Aqua, TN)

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (Mansfield, MO )

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Mineral, VA)

Johnny’s Select Seeds (Winslow, ME)

This should get you started, anyway.  If you want to see what other kitchen gardeners are up to, check out kitchen gardeners TN.   Next time we talk gardening, we’ll talk compost!  Leave me a comment, and let me know how your kitchen (or driveway) garden is coming along.

So.  You read my last post on eating locally, and you took action!  You’ve called the county extension agent, and you know when your farmer’s market is.  You have some herbs growing in a little pot on your windowsill.  Maybe Basil or Parsley.  You’ve made bread with local honey and wheat, and you spread it with some homemade freezer jam. (You must work fast, it’s only been 2 days!)

Maybe you’ve even read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,  And now you want more.  Okay, let’s see what I can do to help.  Today, let’s focus on the web.  there is a TON of information out there to help you eat fresh, green, and local.  Here are five great websites you can check out to find food available to you here in the great state of Tennessee.

1. First, go to Local Harvest and type in your zip code.  See what comes up.  Find one farm near you and make plans to go check it out.  Let them know you’re interested. (I want to visit Sage Hill Farms, for instance.)
2. Now check out TN Farm Fresh for our region (region 4).  (5/6 of the counties I’m focusing on are listed.  Sorry Moore County.  Let’s work on that!!)
3. If you haven’t been there yet, check out Pick TN Products.  Search by food or area to see what’s available.  For example a search for “Oats” turned up The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge that grinds oats and will ship them to you.
4. My next resource for you would be the Eat Well Guide.  I have a searchable link to their site on my sidebar.  Just enter the food you’re looking for.
5. Finally, another great way to gain access to fresh local food is to join a CSA.  You can look on Local Harvest for one, or maybe check out the Pillars of Light food Co-Op in Tullahoma.  It works a little like a CSA, and a little like a farmer’s market.  You select the food online, place your order, and pick it up in Tullahoma.  It seems like a great idea.  I can’t wait to try it out.

That’s it for now.  Get some paper, and write yourself a list of farms in your area you want to visit, then form a plan of attack.  Be sure to post in the comments how your food adventures go, I’d love to hear about it.

So you want to eat more locally, but you’re not sure how?  Everyone has to start somewhere.  I did.  My road to eating locally was paved with books.  I was first  introduced to the idea of eating locally when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.  Then I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.  I took off from there, and discovered a whole genre of writing I didn’t know existed.  A little humor, a little bit cookbook, a little bit memoir, a little how-to.  Great characters, action, adventure.  Food writing.  then I branched out into some serious “how-to” books.  The Encyclopedia of Country Living, Barnyard in Your Backyard, Storey’s Basic Country Skills. Then, I found the More-With-Less Cookbook it really made me stop and think about my eating habits.  When I found Simply in Season, I knew I had to do something.  This may not be an “official” way to go about it, but it’s what’s worked for me.  So, here’s five simple little things you can do to eat closer to home.

1. The easiest thing to do is to find yourself a local farmer.  Someone growing something right here.  Call your county extension agent (see the list on the resources page) and ask when & where your closest farmer’s market is.
2. Plan to grow something this year.  A tomato plant in a pot, a few herbs on your window sill, some okra in your flowerbeds.  America is one of the only countries where people think vegetable plants are too ugly to be seen.  Change your thinking, food is beautiful!  Very cosmopolitan, don’t you think?
3. Get yourself some local honey and try using it in place of sugar in a few baked goods.  I like the honey from the Elk Valley Beekeepers Association, which is available at Woodard’s in Lynchburg, or from the Pillars of Light food Co-Op in Tullahoma.  When I can’t get that, I buy honey at Swiss Pantry that comes from Taft, TN.
4. Now that you have some honey, why not try baking some bread?  Grab some yeast while you’re at Swiss Pantry for your honey, run out to Falls Mill for a bag of wheat flour, and give this easy, delicious recipe a try.
5. Finally, you need something to spread on your bread: make freezer jam.  First, check out PickYourOwn.org and go get yourself some fresh fruit.  Then pick up a bag of sugar, a package or two of Freezer Jam Pectin in the canning section of any grocery store, and you’re in business.  ~I know, I just told you to switch to honey.  Baby steps, people!~  Anyway, It really is as simple as mash the fruit, add sugar and pectin, stir, pour, freeze.  If my 7 year old can do it, so can you.

That should get you started anyway.  The only other advice I can give you is to read.  Check out some of the books I’ve listed, visit some of the sites I’ve linked to, and read, read, read.  There’s a ton of information out there, but I hope this has helped you decide where to start.  Good luck!

Here’s a great source for local food info you might not know about:

Local Table: a Guide to Food and Farming in Middle TN.

This is the greatest little magazine.  I first found it last year at the Bell Buckle Cafe, and read it cover to cover on the way home.  It is FULL of farms, farmstands, and farmers markets all right here in Middle TN.  You can find it locally, or it is available by subscription.

They also have a great website: LocalTable.net. It features different local businesses, videos, news, local events, even an Ask Farmer Jason column.

One of my favorites, is a Seasonality Chart.  This chart was a big help for me when I first really started trying to eat locally.  I printed it out, took it everywhere with me and used it as a reference to know wether the veggies I was buying were really at their peak of local availability or not.  Very cool stuff!

I will admit that their focus is generally on stuff closer to Nashville than the area I’m focusing on here for right now.  However, that said, I think it’s too good of a resource to pass up.  So, keep your eyes open for a copy of the March Issue, or do what I’m going to do: subscribe.  That way you’ll always be sure to have the latest resources right at your fingertips.