Shopping Locally

While up in Michigan we visited my husband's sister and her husband. She is a very environmentally aware person and likes to do as much as she can to help the environment. Don't even get her started on BP unless you have a couple of free hours (and who can blame her). They recycle and buy organic foods but they also like to go to a local farmers market to get meat and produce. The go to a delightful market in Farmington and buy fresh beef and vegetables from a delightful couple who has their own organic farm called Garden Gate Farm. It was fun to walk around and see everything else that was for sale. I bought some wonderful soap from Relic Soap. It is all natural and smells wonderful. 

Their habits got me thinking....would it be wise for me to start buying more things locally? We have three farmers markets on Saturday mornings within a 30 minute radius. There is good meat, good produce, honey, herbs, etc all for sale at these markets. And the nice part is you are keeping your money in the state, you aren't paying for transportation, things aren't getting hauled from state to state so the pollution is down, and it is nice to get out. We can take the puppies on a cooler day (dark gray coats in the VA heat don't work so well). And frankly nothing and I mean nothing beats fresh meat and produce. The lettuce tastes crisp and fresh, the tomatoes melt in your mouth, the beef tastes healthier for you, and the honey...crisp iced tea with a bit of honey and lemon. Screams summer!!

Now I will admit shopping locally takes a bit more time and planning. It isn't as convenient as walking into the store to buy what you need but it feels right to me. And during the winter months I'll still have to go to a store to buy what I need.

But thanks to S & A I'm looking at how and what I buy for our home and the impact it has...do you shop locally? do you shop at farmers markets?