Saturday Mornings

As a stay at home mom I find that my days are not very scheduled. The only day of the week that I have a steady commitment is on Saturday. Every single Saturday morning, without fail, I go to the Farmer's Market. I am really lucky to live in a place that has an awesome Farmer's Market year round. I often hear people complain that it is difficult to get locally grown produce in the middle of winter. But looking around at the market today I have to disagree. There was a large variety available and right now it is mid-February. Today, at the market, I saw: carrots, many varieties of winter squash, onions, potatoes, beets, celeriac, a wide variety of greens, dried beans, apples and pears (they have been in cold storage since last fall) amongst other things. I know that in another month the pickings will be slimmer but in two months or so the first of the years veggies will start showing up and then it is months of veggie bliss to look forward to.

It did make me think about what I would do if I didn't have the market so close to my house. Besides growing your own veggies and storing them you can look in the supermarket for locally grown produce. If you don't see any talk to the manager. Tell them you are interested in more local options. Additionally some CSAs have winter shares available - although they are usually just a box around Thanksgiving and another around Christmas. But still, that is better than nothing.

Another option is to grow your own veggies in the winter. Looking at the price of greens this morning ($7 for a 1/2 lb) I decided it would be worth my time to start growing my own greens. Lettuce and spinach are fairly easy to grow indoors in pots and they grow quickly. You can also continually harvest the outer leaves as needed, extending the production time of the plant. I have to look through my seeds and see what I have left over from last year but I am sure I have spinach and wouldn't be surprised to find lettuce. Plus, I'd imagine it is close to the time that you start to see seed packets available in stores. I will post pictures of my indoor greens growing endeavor as it happens.

If anyone has any tips about growing other vegetables indoors during the winter I would love to hear them.