Ever since I read Coming Home to Eat
One of the biggest things for me has been finding a steady source of local, raw goat milk. I started out with one truly wonderful goat farmer, who had some issues with her supply (breeding issues) and turned me onto another equally wonderful goat farmer, so I now have two sources and get a regular supply delivered to me every single Wednesday. Yes, delivered.
On Wednesday mornings, my goat farmer brings me a half gallon of fresh milk. Sometimes it’s so fresh it’s still warm from the morning milking. I give her back the empty jars from the previous week, pay her and go about my business. Oh we talk too about things like GMOs, gardening, canning, cooking, and more. It’s a wonderful connection and I feel so blessed by both of my goat farmers in their kindness, dedication to their product and animals, and their all around amazingness.
I met my goat farmer through my massage therapist who also happens to own an orchard. It starts small, this food community. You make one connection that leads to another that leads to another and so on. I talk about local food to everyone who will listen and in doing so I meet other kindred souls and grow my local food network even more. It’s a never-ending spiral of simplicity and local food. Something I’m honestly so very honored to be a part of and something I truly hope I contribute to as much as take. There are many fringe benefits to being a part of the community, things like getting the juiciest, sweetest peaches God ever created, elk summer sausage, and yes fresh chevre.
I share all this not to brag but rather to encourage. It can be a slow process, this building of a local food community, but it is well worth it. Stick with it today and in a few years you’ll be amazed at how much local food graces your pantry.
What kind of food community have you been building or looking for in your corner of the world?
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Reading your post today made me realize that even though I live in the middle of suburban Southern California, I have been building a sort of food community at my local farmers market. I stop and talk with many of the vendors and have gotten to know them over the years. I know now that is out of avocados that he most likely has put aside a few for me. Another egg farmer brings the most delicious chicken with him. Thanks for helping me focus on what I do have here in my region and not on what I would like to have somewhere else.