Great Saturday Morning May 30, 2009

I just got home from visiting the Harrisonburg Farmers’ Market and the Arboretum Herb and Garden Festival.  The Farmers’ Market was bustling with people.  I have never seen so many people and vendors there before.  They had more than ever.  There were so many great smells and so many delicious foods.  Most of the vendors were selling herbs and vegetables to be planted.  The market is a great place to go if you are thinking about starting a garden as there are several varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, lots of herbs, etc. to plant.  I bought a few cucumber and watermelon plants at a great price and they were started organically!  Additionally, there were breads, eggs, meats, cheeses, fresh vegetables, and granola.  Everything there was grown very locally and mostly everything was grown ethically and without the use of pesticides and chemicals.  Going there put me in such a great mood and I would suggest to everyone to start visiting the farmers’ markets near you and the one in Harrisonburg when you are in town.  Through Thanksgiving the Harrisonburg Farmers Market will be open on Tuesdays and Saturdays 7 am to 1 pm.  They are a great place to begin eating locally grown foods.  

The Herb and Garden Festival was also quite nice.  A few less people there however.  If you are in town it is going on until 3 PM this afternoon and is in the R-3 Parking lot near East Campus Library.  They had lots of herbs and vegetables to get your garden started.  Most of the vendors were also selling flowers and plants for your yards, many of which are native to the U.S. I bought a bicolor butterfly bush!  

I was so happy to see so many people at both events.  It is great to see more people caring about where their food comes from and learning to plant it themselves.  Have a great day!

Becoming a Blogger May 28, 2009

For our advocacy class, we recently read two articles about the internet and its relationship to the public sphere.  I found myself thinking about how fast blogging and other forms of online communication are growing.  I had never even thought of making a blog before this course and now I am actually having some fun doing so.  Blogs offer a space for people to share anything they are interested in.  We can keep in touch with friends and meet new ones.  Sadly, I was also reminded of how lucky we are to have access to the internet.  Only 6% of the world’s population has access to the internet and we are fortunate enough to be part of that small group.  How long will it be before everyone will have access to the internet?  What will the world look like?  How small would the world feel if you could truly speak with anyone from any country around the world? Think of the changes we could make.  The internet has such power to make change and share knowledge.

In Harrisonburg this Summer? May 27, 2009

Are you spending the summer in Harrisonburg?  If so, Harrisonburg offers some great opportunities to buy locally grown foods.  On the Harrisonburg Tourism site, there is a list of several locations where you can “Buy Fresh, Buy Local.” I have visited a number of them.  The Dayton Farmers’ Market is open year round and has all sorts of produce, meats, cheeses, jams, breads, and desserts.  They also have a number of nice gift shops where you can buy locally made gifts and fair trade items from around the world.  

The Harrisonburg Farmers’ Market is located in a parking lot downtown.  It is currently open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7 am to 1 pm.  According to their site they currently have: asparagus, spring greens, spinach, herbs, greenhouse and early spring lettuces, cress, Artisan breads, delicious baked goods, meats, eggs, goat and cheddar cheeses, soups, jams and jellies, fresh cut flowers, bedding and nursery plants, select local crafts and more. I have been to this market several times and have found something interesting and delicious each time.  I will be visiting the market this Saturday and will let everyone know how it is.

If you are spending the summer somewhere else, check out Local Harvest where you can enter your zip code and find any number of farmers’ markets near you.

Why go local? May 25, 2009

I have complied a list of reasons why you should buy locally whenever possible from three different websites: Life Begins @ 30, 100 Mile Diet, and Local First. 

 

More for the local economy, give back to the local economy: When businesses are non-local money leaves the community, money spent at a local business is reinvested in the community. 

Locally grown is fresher and tastes better: Produce from the grocery store has been traveling for days and is then stored when it arrives.  There is little way of knowing how long the food you buy has been sitting since it was picked.  Freshness of food affects both taste and nutritional value. 

Know what you’re eating: The answers are much easier to get if you are buying the food directly from the person who grew it.  People who eat locally also build relationships with farmers and the farmers are more accountable because they care about their customers. 

They have longer to ripen: Because locally bought fruits and vegetables will be handled less and travel fewer miles, they are left on the vine much longer to become the ripest they can be.  

Reduced environmental impact: Eating locally is better for the air quality and pollution than eating organic.  Supporting local also means less farms and pastures will be developed, leaving us with more beautiful, open space.  The burning of fossil fuels to ship food across the country leads to global climate change and great resource depletion but much of it can be eliminated when we buy locally grown food. 

Keeps us in touch with the seasons: When we eat locally, we eat what is in season.  Food in season is at it’s peak taste, is most abundant, and the least expensive. 

Knowing the story, Meet your neighbors: Knowing part of the story about how the food you are eating came to your table makes the meal much more enjoyable.  Farmers’ markets can be a social place where you can meet people and get to know those in your community who care about the same things you do. 

Protects us from bio-terrorism: The less distance the food travels, the less susceptibility to harmful contamination. 

More variety, more choices, new flavors: Local producers are able to try small crops of a large variety of fruits and vegetables.  This means new things for you to try and new favorites for you to have. 

Explore your home: Visiting local farms and exploring new farmers’ markets can be a fun way for you to get to know your home region in a new way. 

 

Support small farms: Supporting small farms means supporting local business and combatting Walmart and other large corporations.  Eating and buying local foods is a great way to combat consumerism.  

 

Be healthy: Eating more fruits and vegetables at their nutritional peak will make you feel and look great.  

 

Create memories: Visiting local farms, finding new farmers’ markets, starting a garden in your backyard, or learning to can tomatoes can be lots of fun if you do them friends and family.  

 

Non-profits and the community receive greater support: Local business owners donate more to charity and are more likely to invest in the community than non-local chain stores and corporations.  

 

More jobs: Small local businesses provide lots of jobs. 

 

Better Customer Service: Local businesses often hire people with more product expertise. 

 

 

 

Opening up the Newspaper May 25, 2009

After informing my family and neighbors about my new blog, I was flooded with suggestions for where to find information to use and what I should include in my posts.  One such article happened to be on the front page of the NY Times yesterday.  An interesting article to read about organic farming interns around the country jumped out.  The article is about the increasing interest in food and farming.  More students than ever before are turning to fun but low-paying farm internships to become part of the organic and local food movement.  

For Alternative Spring Break this year, I spent the week at an intentional, sustainable community called Koinonia Farm. During the week, we learned about community life, farming and gardening, pecans, and permaculture.  My week on the farm further spiked my interest in food and farming.

Hello world! May 22, 2009

Hi! I’m Ashley Hogan and I’ll be a senior at JMU next fall.  I’m a Justice Studies major in the Global Justice and Policy track with a minor in French and Anthropology.  I’m from Jefferson, MD, where I currently live with my family: my mom, dad, sister, brother, two dogs, a cat and a fish.  I am happy to be home from Harrisonburg, VA for a bit and am enjoying my summer so far.  I enjoy spending time with my friends, going to the lake, gardening, hiking, reading, and going on all sorts of adventures.  While home this summer I will be interning at the Scott Key Center in Frederick, MD working with mentally disabled adults and babysitting.

The issue I will be focusing on for my blog is the importance of buying and eating locally. I have become incredibly interested in being aware of where my food is coming from and what it took to get it in my fridge.  I have also begun gardening and hope that this year some of what is on the dinner table will have come straight from my backyard.  There are huge environmental advantages to buying food locally or living off your land.  There also benefits for local farmers and your local economy.  As a society we have come away from doing so and have stopped appreciating good fresh food when we get it.  We need to get back to these roots and I hope that through this blog, I will learn a lot and share it with everyone reading.  Hopefully this summer and for seasons to come we can all become more aware of what we are eating and the costs of eating it.