Reasons to Support Your Local Farmers Market

I have been counting the days until my local farmers market starts.  I love farmers markets and go to my local one every week spring through fall.  I can find everything from organic meat to artwork at the market.  Why would I shop in a freezing store with artificial light when I could be walking around in the sunshine?  There are hundreds of reasons to shop at a farmers market but here are some of the few I find most important. 

1. Know where your food is coming from
Shopping at a farmers market allows you to actually meet the people that are growing and making your food.  They can tell you exactly what the difference is between different types of plums are and most likely allow you to sample all of the different types.  When I buy meat they can tell me exactly what the animal ate so I know what I'm getting. 

2. Supporting local businesses
Stores only pay a few cents per pound to the farmers for their produce.  When you buy from a farmers market all of that money goes to the farmer so the prices are normally cheaper for you and the farmer still gets more money per pound for produce.  Farmers markets also have a ton of local artists, restaurants and other local businesses.  Shopping from them is supporting your local economy, in addition you get to meet the people in your community. 

3. Eating seasonally and locally
There have been many articles on the benefits of eating seasonally.  When you shop at farmers markets you are only eating fruits that have been grown locally and are in season.  When you eat locally the food is fresher.  The produced sold at the market has normally been picked that day, as opposed to the grocery store where it's picked before it's ripe and sits in the store for days.  There has been some recent controversy over which is actually more eco-friendly, but the produce traveling less of a distance to the market means less energy used to get the food to you.  Why pay to have something shipped 2,000 miles when you can buy the same food locally?  Eating seasonally and locally is a more sustainable way of eating and living. 

4. It's fun
Going to the farmers market is an afternoon or evening out for me.  I walk around, shop, catch up with friends, listen to music and have dinner all at the market.  When I leave I have bread, meat, produce and maybe a few other things I need for the week.  You would never get that kind of experience from a grocery store, even those that are organic or offer locally grown produce.  Take your entire family and make it a fun experience for everyone! 

There are a ton of websites dedicated to helping you find a farmers market in your area.  Find one to go to this week.  Feel free to post in the comments the local farmers markets you visit and share with the rest of us!

Further reading
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/seasonal/
10 reasons to shop are your local farmers market

Reasons and tips to make a roast

For some reason a lot of new cooks are afraid of making a roast.  I'll admit once upon a time I was one of those cooks.  All of my first meals were terribly overcooked in fear of serving raw food (still managed to serve some raw meals) and I never went near anything like a pork roast or a whole chicken because those things seemed advanced.  I left those meals to my parents to make when I'd visit home.

Here is the myth busted on roasts, they are basically the easiest meal to make.  All you do is season them, stick the meat in the oven and take it out after a couple hours.  Throw in a couple quick sides like peas and rolls and you're done.  It looks like you spent hours making an amazing meal but in reality you maybe spent 20 minutes actually standing in the kitchen cooking and the rest of the time you let the oven do the work. 

The price is usually reasonable too, I wait for a buy one get one free meat sale at my grocery store  then stock up on meat, and store it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. Even if it's not on sale, the roasts are normally pretty reasonable for how impressive the meal will look especially if you are entertaining. 

A few tips:

• Time and temperature: Different roasts need to be cooked to different temperatures.  My advice is search online for the type of meat you have for recipes and even if you don't use the recipe it will have how long and the temperature the roast will need to go in the oven.  Use a meat thermometer to test the temperature of your roast to make sure it has come to Temp.  A good meat thermometer will even have what temperatures all of the different types of meat should come to before they are done. 

• Chickens and turkeys:  Clean them out first!  They have organs stuffed inside of them when your buy the birds.  Some people use these parts to make gravy.  It doesn't matter if you're that type of person or not, you need to remove those parts before the bird goes in the oven.  Unless they are frozen inside, they should pull right out.  I know, gross, but suck it up or put on a pair of gloves it will be worth it in the end. 

• Resting the meat: Resting just means when you pull your beautiful roast out of the oven, let it sit for a few minutes before you cut it.  I suggest setting it on a wood cutting board, tenting it with foil and letting it sit for 15 minutes before you cut into it.  If you cut the roast before you let it rest, all of the juicy goodness will run out on your cutting board and your meat will be dry. 

• Seasoning: Now this is just a basic idea, my seasoning and how much changes from roast to roast, but this will give you a good start to your first roast.  I use garlic, sea salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning on almost every roast I do.  If I want a spicier flavor I might add red pepper flakes, chili powder or Cayenne pepper. 

There you go!  Hopefully any anxiety over making a roast is gone and you're ready to try one.  Remember it might take a couple tries to get right taste you're going for, but it's a process. 

There is a myth that cooking a meal such as a roast for a man you are interested in marrying might actually make him propose.  The reason?  He sees you not as a girlfriend but more like wife/mother material because you made that traditional, complicated meal.  What he doesn't know was it hardly took any time at all!