Farmers' market ends Saturday
Alas, that time of year has come. This Saturday will be your last chance to take advantage of the wonderful Corvallis farmers' market until mid-April. There will be indoor winter markets a few times throughout the cold season at the Benton County Fairgrounds, but getting a weekly fix of fresh, local fruits and veggies is more difficult at this time of year.
There are a few more options, however. As always, the First Alternative Coop is the best option in town for finding locally-grown organic produce. You don't have to be a member to shop there, but it's worth the fee to join if you can. We finally did last year (Thanks mom!) and the Owner Appreciation Days alone make it worthwhile. I'd still rather buy directly at the farmers' market, but at least I don't have to buy waxed imported apples and E. coli-ridden spinach during the cold months.
Richey's Market is also a good bet for local produce and meat from local farms. Local doesn't always mean organic, however, so if you're a stickler, stickler with First Alternative.
By the way, if you'd like a prioritized list of what items should be purchased organic all the time versus items that can be nabbed at Safeway in a pinch, Consumer Reports has a fairly good list with explanations. Over the past two years, we have gradually converted over to organic almost entirely, and have further moved toward "deep organic" instead of the "shallow organic" items found in most grocery chains. I've found this to be much simpler (and significantly less expensive!) when I buy locally-grown items, so much so that next year, when the farmers' market opens back up, Corvallist kid and I are going to take the "100-mile challenge" for a month and only eat food that is raised or grown within 100 miles from our house.
I would love to adopt this as a permanent policy, but I would miss bananas and chocolate way too much, and Corvallis kid might shrivel up without an occasional coffee. Still, becoming a locavore and eating mostly within one's food shed is a worthy goal. Living in the bountiful Willamette Valley makes this fairly sacrifice-free. And tasty!
There are a few more options, however. As always, the First Alternative Coop is the best option in town for finding locally-grown organic produce. You don't have to be a member to shop there, but it's worth the fee to join if you can. We finally did last year (Thanks mom!) and the Owner Appreciation Days alone make it worthwhile. I'd still rather buy directly at the farmers' market, but at least I don't have to buy waxed imported apples and E. coli-ridden spinach during the cold months.
Richey's Market is also a good bet for local produce and meat from local farms. Local doesn't always mean organic, however, so if you're a stickler, stickler with First Alternative.
By the way, if you'd like a prioritized list of what items should be purchased organic all the time versus items that can be nabbed at Safeway in a pinch, Consumer Reports has a fairly good list with explanations. Over the past two years, we have gradually converted over to organic almost entirely, and have further moved toward "deep organic" instead of the "shallow organic" items found in most grocery chains. I've found this to be much simpler (and significantly less expensive!) when I buy locally-grown items, so much so that next year, when the farmers' market opens back up, Corvallist kid and I are going to take the "100-mile challenge" for a month and only eat food that is raised or grown within 100 miles from our house.
I would love to adopt this as a permanent policy, but I would miss bananas and chocolate way too much, and Corvallis kid might shrivel up without an occasional coffee. Still, becoming a locavore and eating mostly within one's food shed is a worthy goal. Living in the bountiful Willamette Valley makes this fairly sacrifice-free. And tasty!
posted by Corvallist at
11:17 PM
9 Comments:
you should write for the gt!
By
Christopher Farrell, at 12:25 PM
Thanks for the link to the Consumer Reports article.
By
Anonymous, at 1:06 PM
I wouldn't write for the GT. I know what their reporters earn, and it would be a pay cut! No wonder they can't attract and retain anyone with any real talent. Those are the folks who move on.
By
Corvallist, at 3:06 PM
I spoke too soon. Bennett Hall and a few others do have talent.
By
Corvallist, at 3:06 PM
We'd like to become locavores but in all honesty, too many addictions that require transportation thousands of miles at times.
We eat probably 30-40% local on average. Do Kettle Chips still count as local, even though a brit company bought em out?
By
crallspace, at 8:07 PM
The owner of Grilla Bites "real food restaurants" in CA and Oregon told me something I hadn't known before: once the govt. took over certifying the organicness of things, suddenly the farmers had to pay a pretty substantial fee. He suggested looking for catchwords like, "raised with no pesticides or hormones" if you don't find organic labels.
Same thing goes for coffee. Turns out the dreaded Starbucks (yeah, I know, Evil Empire) uses 97% fair trade coffee, but because it costs the coffee farmer money to be labeled fair trade, look for "a living wage" or "supporting coffee farmers" and stuff like that.
Thanks for the inspiration, Corvallist. Love the blog.
By
Anonymous, at 3:05 PM
Heh... Starbucks still uses milk chock full of growth hormone. In addition, that 97% statistic seems to be high compared to what I've managed to find online. The only stats I've found are that they do *purchase* a significant portion of the fair trade coffee on the market, but they sell most of it as packaged coffee beans. Only about 5% of their *brewed* coffee is fair trade. Finally, fair trade is a good start, but to make a real difference environmentally, it should be shade-grown and chemical-free. ;)
By
Corvallist, at 9:40 AM
Maybe so, but they need good writers, and how much are you earning writing this blog?
by the way, did you see my letter regarding the bike path from Corvallis to Albany? My mom thought it was great.
It's hard to eat entirely local. ....I switched to all organic just recently, so that's a move in the right direction.
By
Christopher Farrell, at 1:00 AM
you could run for city council or something..
By
Christopher Farrell, at 1:01 AM
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