10 Ways To Eat Fresh

1. Plant your own backyard garden or patio garden. Do you have a green thumb? Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, herbs, lettuces, and many more veggies and fruits can be as easy to pick as going to your own backyard. Not much of a green thumb? Small patio containers will supplement your family’s dinner nicely.

2. Free Food is always wonderful. Raspberries and blueberries can be found many times while walking along your favorite trail or next to the road. Please be sure to ask the landowner first. There are many logging areas near us and before the trees take over often wild berries thrive. Along a stream we’ve often found grapes in September.

3. Visit a Farmer’s Market or Farm Stand. These farmers grow and raise everything. So if your garden didn’t do too well or if you would like a vegetable that you didn’t plant, visit a farm near you. The Farmer’s Market in Concord which operates each Saturday morning sells veggies, fruit, free range meats, eggs, honey, jams, and many other items you remember from your grandmother’s kitchen.

4. Welcome Localvores! Nothing is more local than buying New Hampshire raised meats. Miles Smith Farm in Loudon raise Scottish Highlander and Angus beef . You can visit their store to select beef that is naturally raised without hormones or antibiotics.

Please call 603 783- 5159 or visit http://www.milessmithfarm.net for more information.

5. PYO- Pick Your Own Farms are plentiful in New England. Whether it is blueberries from Lyon Berry Farm 986 Route 129, 435-7640 or apples from  Appleview Orchard. You can find many other fruits, veggies, maple syrup, and even Christmas tress at local farms. Check out this site for more information. http://www.pickyourown.org/NH.htm

6. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)- Milk and Honey Farm from  Canterbury have summer and winter shares of crops. They grow them and you pick them up. You can have fresh all year round and not have to get your fingers dirty. They also sell seedlings in the Spring for your garden.

7. The Seacoast is close  enough we can almost smell the salt air. Our favorite market is Durham Market Place. The drive is worth the time. They have so many varieties of seafood fresh from our shores. It’s the only place I go for fresh tuna steaks. Every Monday they host a Farmer’s Market so you can take advantage of fresh produce as well.

8. Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food. The Celery Stick Café found in The Concord Food Coop prepares foods from seasonal local produce.

9. Buy from a local specialty store or food coop. The Concord Food Coop has a full-service natural foods grocery store with an extensive organic and local produce department along with a variety of natural food, health, body, and household products. Celery Stick Café prepared foods and seasonal local produce are available at both stores.

10. COOK! Our culture has forgotten the joys of cooking.  Cooking your own food is better for you, saves money and passes a skill to your children. With a little planning cooking doesn’t have to be a chore.