Local Produce
A little over a week ago, I was watching Guy’s Big Bite on the Foodnetwork, and he made an amazing roasted tomato soup. I thought that sounded so good, especially now that the temperatures are starting to go down here in Pennsylvania. Then later that week, Kelly at Planet Green wrote about making roasted tomato soup. I felt like I was becoming obsessed with roasted tomato soup.
I kept thinking I would make it over the weekend, but I needed to find a place to get good produce fairly inexpensive. So I decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. On my way home from work on Friday, I stopped by the Reading Terminal. It is a great place here in Philly to get fresh meats, cheeses, Amish products, and of course, produce. I got all the veggies I needed for the soup and more and only paid a little less than $5. To top it all off, they were locally grown veggies, and it made a very good and healthy soup.
So let’s look at how all this is being more green. First off, I walked there on my way home from work, instead of driving. I used my canvas bags, not plastic. The vegetables were in season vegetables for this area, so they were fresh and local, meaning it was not transported very far. All that and I saved some money.
I know there are places like this all over the country. For example, in Cleveland, there is a great place called the West Side Market. Even in the suburbs of every city I’ve ever lived in, there are small, local produce stands.
Tags: environment, Food, green
October 13th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Does Philly have CSA (community supported agriculture)? Check localharvest.org. I did this in GA, and loved getting fresh local produce every week. The only downside is that you never know what you’re going to get, so it can be hard to menu plan. Here in AK, it’s a bit harder…there are summer CSA’s, but during the winter, the closest CSA is in WA, but does do deliveries…rumor has it that the vegetables are MUCH fresher than what is in the grocery store.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I checked out localharvest.org and turns out there are many available in our area. I’m going to definitely check into them. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks!