From Local Farms
Local farms fill the gap of foods we can’t produce in our yard or get from the wild – and it’s a pretty significant gap comprised largely of dairy, grains, and meats. The good news is that gap is easy to fill, as there are a lot of great producers out there doing really cool things in the world of food – but you’re going to have to find them, and engage with them in a way that works for you and the farm. The more directly that engagement involves you buying raw agricultural products from the farmer, the better off you’ll be on both quality and price fronts. Another really meaningful piece to buying your food this way is that you end up building yourself a real, genuine community as you get to know the lovely people that are your farmers better. It matters. It’s worth the trouble. You can do it.
In 2010 I started producing a video series called ‘From Local Farms‘ to give folks who are local-to-me a look at the people and places behind the foods we see at market. It was shot on a flip HD camera, and I tried to keep it as un-fancy as I can on the production side and let the people and places tell the story. That series has since become part of a broader ‘KevinTV‘ project that not only includes local farmers, but wild food and gardening as well. You can watch the 2010 and 2011 episodes of ‘From Local Farms’ here. You can watch a quick highlight reel to get the idea below.