Protect the Earth... it's where you keep your stuff!

Integrating Local Foods into Our Lives

Here are some quick, some easy, and some just plain fun ways to become a localvore:

• Use the Buy Fresh, Buy Local! food directory to find out about the many farms in the area, what they produce, and where they sell their produce.
  
• Sign up for the EAT Local list serve at https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/sustcomfood
  
• Shop at local farmers' markets--we have two local ones (Charlottesville and Crozet), or you can find a statewide listing here if you live further afield. Get to know the farmers, listen to their stories, support the ones who support your tastes with your dollars.
  
• Visit seasonal local stands--like Village Market and Maupin's, and u-pick farms like Carter Mountain and Chiles, or subscribe to Horse & Buggy Produce,* which provides several weekly local drop locations for your food supplies.
  
• Patronize restaurants and grocers that sell locally produced food and request your favorite foods or producers. Anderson's Carriage Food House, Bluelight Grill, Cville Market, Feast!, Foods of All Nations, Hamilton's, Integral Yoga, Mas Tapas, OXO, Rebecca's, Revolutionary Soup, and The Organic Butcher are just some of the places you can find local produce.
  
• Eat seasonally. Find out what crops ripen and when in our agricultural zone. Your food will be tastier and fresher if it isn't being shipped from Peru.
  
• Learn basic canning, preserving and drying techniques, so you can enjoy your favorite local foods when their natural season is over.
  
• Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm (listed at C-ville online and the BFBL Directory ) so that you can directly participate in the process.
  
• Sign up for a Community Garden plot at either Meadowcreek or Azalea Park through Cville Parks & Rec (call (434) 970-3592 or e-mail pleiss@charlottesville.org for more info);
  
• Get involved with Quality Community Council's Urban Farm initiative, so you can start growing your own urban garden.
  
• If you have the lawn space, start growing your own food—and maybe even your own compost! If this sounds a little daunting, you can find lists of classes and workshops through Charlottesville Garden Club, Blue Ridge Permaculture Network, and The Rivanna Master Naturalists, or get tips from local gardening blogs like Tracey Gerlach's.
  
• If you live in a densely-built apartment or townhouse community, find out if you can use community greenspace for gardening by talking with your neighbors, your landlord and/or your HOA.
  
• Add edible herbs and veggies to your landscape beds to provide both food and color.
  
• Learn about container gardening—there are a lot of foods that can be grown in pots on your porch, balcony, or in front of your sliding glass or french doors.
• Visit a farm and take a tour, get to know who's who your local food supply.
  
• Talk to your friends, neighbors and family about your food choices--host a local-food themed party, or share the extra food from your gardening or farming efforts.
  
• Join a local food policy council, group, or initiative to get active in promoting the localvore lifestyle
  

For more information on the Growing Food & Community intiatives, please contact Dawn Story at dawn@newmoonnaturals.com

* Horse & Buggy is a distributor, not a farm, and does have a range of suppliers that goes outside of the 100 mile "foodshed" mark, however most of the farms that contribute to Horse & Buggy do fit the localvore profile. Ask April & Brett at Horse & Buggy for more info, if you have any questions.