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Let’s Talk About Local Food

Every Monday in Italy, there was a market in the center of our town. Come rain or come shine, and even snow, vendors would set up shop and sell everything from scarves and belts to flowers, fresh produce, meats, cheeses. It was delightful, and one of my favorite parts of living in our town. Speaking to the shop owners was actually how I learned a lot of my Italian.

One of the reasons I was a little sad about coming back to Georgia, was because when we were here the last time, they didn’t have a market or any place to get fresh produce. There was the commissary, Kroger, and Publix. It’s not that those places are bad, but when vegetables make up the majority of our diet, I want those ingredients to be great from the beginning.

Luckily, this middle Georgia town evolved while we were away, because now there’s a market! It’s every Thursday and you can get anything that’s in season—greens literally larger than my head, fresh eggs, apples freshly picked from trees in North Georgia, other veggies, and they even have a CSA there so we can get grass-fed meat. It’s a fun place to check out, and a great way to support the local economy.

There’s also another way to get fresh food down here in the south; enter, Local Organic Moms, or LOMs for short. LOMs is a local (the farm is an hour away from here, but they also deliver to some places in South Carolina and will start delivering to Florida soon) and organic food delivery company. And, because this just adds to the appeal, they deliver their goods in the most adorable pallet crates.

Here’s where things get fun—seriously, the foodie in me loves this part! You can pick from three different sizes of crates (the Tiny {10 pounds}, Economy {20 pounds}, and Family {30 pounds}), and you can customize what exactly goes into your crate that week. You want five heads of broccoli one week? Done. Hate beets and never want to see it on the “menu”? Consider them gone forever. Want to add on honey, eggs, meat, dog bones? Check, check, check, and check! You pick it, you get it.

I absolutely can’t wait for summer, because I have a feeling our crate will be filled to the brim with berries and greens. YUM! What you can’t see in the crate (because they pack it so well for optimum space, are the avocados, squash, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. (I have three recipes I’m itching to share with you, based on the contents of my crate…stay tuned for them!) For my future orders, I’m going to focus more on picking the “dirty dozen” as far as produce goes. Since it’s all organic food, I may as well make that work to my advantage!

In some locations, LOMs will actually deliver your crate to your doorstep (in other places, a truck will drop them off at one spot and everyone goes to pick them up there). We’ve only had four crates so far, but I have to say that the food we’ve eaten tastes so good. It’s hard to explain how fresh, crisp, ripe, and just perfect everything is. It simply just tastes better. Plus, I love knowing that what I get in our crate isn’t saturated with extra chemicals or pesticides, especially since I’m feeding my daughter this food. 

We’re a family that enjoys eating, and knowing I have a fridge full of good, clean food just makes me happy.

Do you get your food from a market, CSA, co-op, or delivery service like this? 
Would you partake if you had the opportunity?  
*If you sign up for LOMs, reference me (email me for my last name)!

12 Comments

  1. We have a few services like this, and I've LOVED them…but we don't ever finish everything we get! Now I only get them occasionally so we don't waste anything. Luckily, our local supermarkets are pretty good about produce.

    1. Yeah, I always do feel the pressure to use everything in the crate. Meal planning comes in handy for that! I'll also try cooking things ahead of time so I can eat it for lunches/leftovers.

  2. Awesome post and I'm not just saying that because my husband builds the crates for LOMs 😉 Thank you for posting such awesome photos about this fantastic service!

  3. We live out in the sticks right now and are a little too out of the way for CSA stuff, BUT I am super excited about the farmer's markets we have out here- definitely worth the drive into the towns that have them! Best produce ever… I am going to miss that like crazy about California. Hopefully there will always be a Whole Foods near by if we end up in another small town!

  4. Oh, I can imagine they have wonderful markets out there! Sadly, the nearest Whole Foods (and Trader Joe's, for that matter) is up in Atlanta. There's a Fresh Market about 45 minutes from here that tries really hard to be similar to WF, but it's just not the same. I'll take what I can get, though!

  5. I might have to look in to LOMs i tried to find a farmer's market here when we moved and the one I found was so crappy and so sad lol

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