By Judy McCarthy
Eating locally was celebrated in Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but even Kingsolver and her family, whose diet included food that was at least 95% locally grown and raised, allowed themselves a few concessions: coffee, wine, chocolate and spices to name a few. Here in the Upper Valley, it is possible to eat pretty much locally all year long, with perhaps a few more concessions than the intrepid Kingsolver Family.
Edgewater Farm in Plainfield offers an Eastman CSA delivered to South Cove, with gusto, every Tuesday afternoon, which will begin this year on June 17 and continue through september. Information is available online at www.edgewaterfarm.com, where you can download an application. It is possible to extend the bounty by participating in their farm stand CSA that usually starts at the beginning of October and ends the week before Thanksgiving. This requires one to travel to the stand on Route 12A in plainfield every Wednesday afternoon to gather vegetables, a dozen fresh eggs, farm-baked bread and something from the farm stand kitchen. Think salsa, soup and pesto. Speak with Jenny at the Eastman delivery during the summer months about this service.
Spring Ledge Farm at 37 Main Street in New London offers farm shares, wherein a participant pays up front and receives a store gift card to purchase anything grown and raised on the farm, including bedding plants, strawberries, sweet corn, and everything from arugula to zucchini throughout the growing season and right up until the Christmas holiday. Information on their farm share/CSA program can be found at www.springledgefarm.com or by calling 526-6253. During the winter months, they open their farm stand every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning for people to buy baby lettuce, spinach, kale, bok choy, swiss chard and other delectable greens harvested from their hoop houses, along with root vegetables, bread from several local bakeries, farm-fresh eggs, spring Ledge- raised lamb, and local honey and syrup.
There are several local farmers’ markets during the growing season, including one on the Newport Common every Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., beginning in May and ending in mid-October, and another in Norwich, Vermont, also beginning in May, at 10 a.m. each Saturday. The market on the Dartmouth Green in Hanover is open from 3 to 6 p.m. every Wednesday from June 4 until Oct. 15. In Lebanon, the market in Colburn Park is open every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. beginning on May 22 and ending on Sept. 25.
The winter markets in both Lebanon and Norwich have been a cold weather boon with produce, dairy products, meat and poultry, fresh bread and baked goods available on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Lebanon market is in the former junior high building, 75 Bank street, on the third Saturday of the month, and the Norwich market has been meeting on the second and fourth Saturdays at Tracy Hall. These markets will continue through April, until the outdoor market season begins. They are advertised in the Valley News.
To keep track of when farm stands open, farmers’ markets begin, and where berry, fruit and vegetable picking opportunities exist, as well as just about anything else connected to local food production, visit vitalcommunities.org/agriculture/onlineguide/index.cfm and sign up for their regular e-letters and food alerts.
In her book, kingsolver reminds us: “The three basic components of responsible eating are to favor food grown in an environmentally responsible way, delivered with minimum petroleum usage, in a manner that doesn’t exploit the farmer.”
Local farmers Pooh Sprague of Edgewater, Greg Berger of Spring Ledge and others would undoubtedly say, “Amen.”
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