Buying local...eating better!

It seems that lately there is a push to buy more local ingredients, to support your local farmer. The reasons to do this are many. One of the biggest reasons I see is the fact that fresh, local produce is so much better for you than anything that has had to travel a long distance. We've all heard that our food starts to loose nutritional value as soon as it's picked. Buying local and fresh allows us to gain as much nutritional value as we can.

What is better than buying locally, is growing it yourself. My family has a garden every year, and every year it seems to get bigger and better. I know not everyone can do this, but if you have a patio you can grow something. A tomato plant? Perhaps a bit of fresh lettuce? Can't get fresher than your own back yard.

Now, I totally understand that not all of us are gardeners, but we all can agree on the theory that fresh is best. Right? We all look forward to the first fresh strawberry of the season. The first ripe tomato. The new potatoes at the produce stand. Farmers markets and their growing popularity proves it.

Why is this so important to share on a gluten-free website? Aren't we supposed to be talking about ways to avoid gluten, ways to replace gluten-filled flours and baked goods with gluten-free options? Of course, but we also must remember that we are all here for one huge reason. We all want good food! What could be better than fresh berries or veggies? All I can say is, "Yum!"

We all know that many of our gluten-free options lack much in the the way of nutrition. High starch foods that offer very little nutritionally, all for the sake of giving us options that we feel we are missing out on. Trust me, I am the first one to admit that I crave a good slice of bread, a sticky caramel cinnamon roll and a tasty cake from time to time. Those all have their important place in our diets. I am with you, I love food! Being a person that must avoid gluten certainly doesn't change that fact.

On this "Earth Day" I know we are all seeing ideas and tips everywhere on living green and taking care of this planet we live on. We all can do our part, that's for sure! I also think we need to focus on ways to eat locally. If for no other reason, than nutrition. Buying local produce or even growing your own is such an amazingly easy way to boost our nutritional bottom line and help our environment at the same time.

Sounds like a tasty way to help our planet, if you ask me. Plus, we get to help preserve a very important part of our nations heritage in farming. I saw a clip from a show on the TV one night. It was a famous chef asking a group of elementary school kids what different vegetables were. I didn't see any of those kids have a correct answer, but they all recognized ketchup! As a mom, this made me sad and a bit worried for our kids and their nutritional future.

I am not wanting to get political here, just want to encourage you to get out to the farmer's markets with your kids. Many people say that their kids won't eat vegetables, but often times if you get your kids involved in the process they find they actually enjoy them. I know my kids love to go to the local farmer's market, seeing all of the fresh produce always makes every one of us hungry!