Do you eat local? Now is the time to plan ahead and order your holiday turkey from a local farmer. That juicy turkey is an essential ingredient in your 100-mile holiday dinner.
We talk with you a lot about how important it is to shop local. When you shop in your community, it keeps money flowing and multiplying in your local economy.
Behind just the money, though, it keeps you building local relationships. Whether you are buying a baby carrier, a pumpkin, or a turkey, if you have a relationship with the person who is selling a product to you, you are more confident and trusting in what you get. It’s easier to understand what is going on with your food when you shake the farmer’s hand and ask a few questions when you drop by to pick it up.
100-mile Diet
Since reading a few years ago about the adventures of a Canadian couple eating locally for a year, a story told in their book Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-mile Diet, my family has made great efforts to replace far-away foods with great local foods. We are fortunate to have a lot of choices.
The very small town (now a ghost town) where my grandfather was born, is a now a collection of turkey farms. When my family eats turkey, we always have a variety of local options, even from the grocery store.
It’s especially important to us to use foods from the Americas, LOCAL foods in more ways than one, for our harvest and holiday celebrations. Acknowledging the food and where each ingredient came from is a big part of our family meal.
It isn’t always easy to get the foods you are used to locally, but you can almost always get local poultry. Whether you go all the way with a 100-mile meal or whether you just find that beautiful, big turkey locally, talk about it with your children. Your efforts and your reasons for buying local will make an impression on them.
Where to Buy Your Local Turkey
If you don’t already have a turkey farmer on speed dial, there are websites to help you find exactly what you are looking for.
In Canada, the turkey Farmers of Canada have links to local turkey producers throughout Canada. The local sites are all different, but most of them list local farmers. For example, when you click through to the Turkey Farmers of Ontario, you end up at Ontario Meat & Poultry, where you can search for exactly what you want—including your location, distance you are willing to go, type of meat, ethnic focus, and so on.
If you are in the U.S. and still looking for a turkey for Thanksgiving, It’s not too late. Local Harvest has a big selection of local farms with turkeys ready for local pick-up. While you are there, check out the fresh cranberries section. There are fewer options, but just think how tangy and fresh those cranberries will taste with your local turkey. To find a local farmer, just focus on your area on the map on Local Harvest, and you will find a listing of local food resources.
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