To all the folks who advocate gardening & farmers' markets, please know they aren't available to everyone.
We used to live near SF. We had a tiny yard that grew loads of food, 4 weekly farmers' markets within a 20 minute drive, 2 organic restaurants in our town, a locally owned organic grocery store, and both Whole Foods and Trader Joe's nearby.
Then we moved to rural north Florida.
Our dirt is sand down more than 8 feet. To amend the "soil" takes a ton of compost. Organic compost (OMRI certified) is available through exactly 1 nursery, about an hour away. I'm working on homemade compost (requires animal protection and will take forever because we don't have a lot of scraps). Our neighbor has chickens but had to build a crazy coop to protect them. On top of not being easy farmland, the nearest grocery store with any organic produce is an hour drive. No farmers market within an hour and a half drive at 75 MPH.
Before anyone brings up You-pick farms, they are mainly fruit, far away, and take all day.
So, here's how we make it work:
- grow a few things in pots
- once a week, shop at Publix with a list
- once a month, order from Azure Standard
- supplement with Amazon and other online companies
It's not really local, but it's the best we can do this year.
