[Sca-cooks] Seasonal Produce, was Meat Prices

[Elaine Koogler]

kingstaste at mindspring.com wrote:

>I'm beginning to wonder what's left to eat!
>
>'Lainie
>
>
>Well, I've been preachin' the whole "eat seasonal, eat local" thing to my
>students, and my neighbors just turned me on to a new organic produce
>buyer's co-op called MellowBellies.  For 25 bucks a week, they will deliver
>a box of organic produce of mixed contents, enough for a family of 4 or 2
>that eat a lot of veggies.
>
>Here is a description of a box:
>  
>
>>What’s in the box?  It was rare to receive the same combination of
>>produce from week to week.  For example, one week last summer a box
>>consisted of a watermelon, half a dozen ears of corn, a small bag of
>>tomatoes, a handful of summer squash, a few onions, 2 heads of garlic,
>>a bag of arugula.  The next week, we might get a bag of pears (about
>>9), arugula, a large bag of edamame, more corn (6-12 ears), summer
>>squash, a pint of blueberries,  maybe a head of cabbage. Once we
>>received a small bear bottle of honey. Count on more tomatoes this year
>>since now the farm grows them in a greenhouse.
>>    
>>
>
>
>	Buyer's co-ops for your local areas are cropping up in more and more
>places, I'd say that eating localally produced foods that are in season are,
>as always, the way to go.
>Christianna
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>
>
>  
>
Yeah...we shop our local Farmer's Market, especially in the summer. 
We're very fortunate in that it includes a marvelous baker, a butcher 
who does his own slaughtering, etc., and a wonderful fishmonger. 
Southern Maryland still has a large percentage of farmland and, as the 
farmers are being encouraged not to grow tobacco, they are getting into 
truck farming...long a major industry over on the Eastern Shore. Meat is 
still expensive here...I think that's a function of the disastrous bad 
weather last year and this year's disastrously high oil prices. I'd say 
that chicken is the cheapest meat, but we do occasionally get really 
good prices on specials...last weekend, we were able to get racks of 
pork ribs for 1.99/lb. And we frequently see pork loin on sale.

But yes, shopping local farmers crops (markets, roadside stands, 
pick-you-own, etc.) is a very good way to get the best produce for the 
best prices.

Kiri