Locavore, by Lorie Sheffer, Guest blogger

Locavore is a phone app for finding Farmer’s Markets and local growers…

Photo: Lorie Sheffer
Photo: Lorie Sheffer
Photo: Lorie Sheffer
Photo: Lorie Sheffer

There’s nothing better than buying food from a market that is well within eyesight of the farm on which it was grown.

As we age, we tend to do what is easy. No children left at home, we sometimes grab what is convenient and call it a meal. I say, what can be more convenient than a juicy peach, a steaming pot of freshly husked sweet corn and a ripe, juicy tomato?

City living is hardly an excuse. Most cities now have farmers markets and co-ops.

There is something relaxing about getting out a few canning jars and making homemade jam. It’s really not that difficult, and when the metal lid is popped off in the middle of winter, revealing the luscious aroma and taste of the past summer season, any effort that was spent on the process melts away with the oozing jam on hot toast. It takes hardly any time or effort to blanch a dozen of so ears of corn and cut the kernels into freezer bags, and the difference it makes when served at a holiday meal is more than enough reward.

Sometimes we tend to forget how food is supposed to taste. While it’s a treat to be able to purchase watermelon in the Northeast in the middle of winter, it’s not the same as eating one in season. Out of season produce that has been trucked halfway across the country really doesn’t have the same flavor.

In an age where so much is available to us for little of no effort, getting local fresh foods is one thing that really does give huge paybacks in both taste and nutritional value. There is also something very grounding and almost therapeutic about getting in touch with where our food comes from and taking a hand in preserving a bit of it for later in the year.

“Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and his many accomplishments- owes his existence to a 6 inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

By jeff noel

Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.