Two readers of my last post suggested that I include the address or a link to where I normally get my eggs. This, unfortunately, isn't possible. Alternatively, I decided to research local farms that sell free range chicken eggs directly to the public. But this, too, turned out to be research not easily done in the few days I had before my next blog deadline (today) arrived. Few family/local farms, it seems--at least here in the Eastern Ohio Western Pennsylvania area--have a website or a listing in the usual online farm directories, such as the Mahoning Valley Agricultural Guide or Eat Wild Ohio. Which makes sense, really. They're farmers, not web masters!
Though I strongly recommend buying your eggs and other farm products directly from the farmer, I am also deeply aware that this is not always an easy thing to do. Research takes time!
No farm will have all the products the average family needs. Farms usually specialize, which means that buying everything from its original source is probably impossible, especially if you also have to work for a living. Some farms--even small ones--may not tend to their animal humanely. Others may use pesticides or gene
modified seeds and plants. In which case, even after you've gone to all the trouble of finding them, you may well end up choosing not to buy what they produce.
Farm stands, farmers markets and food co-operatives can fill the gaps, but even those types of businesses are not always available in every area. Youngstown, Ohio, for instance, used to have an awesome food co-operative when I first moved to the area, but it closed down six or seven years ago, and no one (to my knowledge) has attempted to fill that gap.
If you want to get "real" groceries from "real" sources, you'll need to develoView Blogp multiple strategies that match your local situation. In my own case, for instance, we buy directly from only two farms (three if you count Farmer E from my last post). Everything else comes from seasonal farm stands and--yes, I confess--grocery stores. The grocery stores we choose, however, are not always in the area. Once a month, or so, someone from the household makes the drive to Cleveland to stock up on items from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
As I said earlier, research (especially the old-fashioned legwork, non-Internet kind) takes enormous amounts of time, a commodity few of us have. But it can be done.
Not that I've actually done it, mind you. I haven't . . . yet. If it weren't for my daughter's patient sleuthing over the last few years, my household would still be limited to farm stands and farmer's markets in the warm weather months. Like many people, my life revolves around work, which for me is a 40-hour-a-week desk job PLUS other occasional employment--including teaching a course at the university--to make ends meet. Grocery stores are easy, well-stocked, (generally) always there. Changing my routines to include getting some of my groceries from local farms has been an adjustment.
Is it worth it? I have come to think so, enough to step outside my comfort zone when necessary and make the drive to the farm when others in the household can't. At first I was skeptical, but now I'm hooked.
These are the two more-or-less local area farms we have purchased from in the last two years: Lamppost Farm in Columbiana, Ohio, and Pasture Maid Creamery in New Castle, Pennsylvania. (Both places have been known to sell chicken eggs, but eggs are not their specialties and may not always be available.) I recommend these folks highly, although I am also certain that there are many, many other Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvanian farms that we just don't know about or haven't taken the time to visit yet.
I've added the following to my To Do List for a future series of posts: Find out more about area farms, who grows what, and how to to buy directly from them.
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