Fall Happenings

One the fun things to do in San Francisco or anywhere, in my opinion, is to check the new produce at the Farmers Market. Golden Chanterelle mushrooms are in season here. Is there anything better than a quiche or risotto with Golden Chanterelle mushrooms? Check out the new produce where you are! You may have something just as good.

One of fun things to do in San Francisco and in your hometown

Consider spending time at your local farmers market. It is one of the fun things to do in San Francisco as well as your hometown. Most farmers markets attract local musicians and performers, so in addition to supporting local sustainable agriculture, it is a lot of fun.

Local Resources

A good resource for local foods in the US, Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia is www.slowfood.com. They are also the place for find out how to get involved in building sustainable agriculture and communities.

Farmers Markets in the US

A good source for farmers markets in the US is the USDA website, http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/. You can look up farmers markets in your local area.

Creating Demand

One thing that we here repeatedly on our tours is how unique San Francisco is, with an incredible variety of local foods. This may sounds simplistic, however there are an surprisingly number of area in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere that have or can create the same demand for local foods. The more food stores hear demands for local foods, the more they carry them. If you are willing to vote with you feet, in other words shop at the stores that carry local foods and let the other stores know that you are doing that, the more the market will be created for local foods. It's easy for a store to deal with one distributor for everything, rather the dozens of farmers and local producers. The only incentive for them to deal with local producers is that consumers will not shop at their stores if they do not.

Finding Your Local Farmers Market

A good source for finding your local farmers market is the department of agriculture for your state.

Demand Creates Supply

We often hear on our tours how lucky we are to have an abundance of local foods. Our guests tell how they wish they could get local foods where they live. An important factor in having local foods available is local demand. If your local grocer believes that will lose customers if they do not carry local foods they may start to carry local foods to keep customers. Make it clear to your local grocer that you will shop at grocers that carry local foods and you may end up with local foods at your local grocer.