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.