our first ... completely local meal!!!

i felt a real sense of satisfaction in the kitchen yesterday as i prepared our dinner.  in the past our meals have had a different elements of "home grown".  from home made bread to veggies or eggs .... you name it.  but they were always supplemented from a diet of things from the grocery store.  but last night as i prepared dinner i realised that everything we were eating was local.  and it felt really good.  a reminder that i was doing the right thing by our local growers and community .... whether i was growing my own or not.

typically locally grown is defined as within 100 kms.  give or take a few kms here or there.  the logic being that cost and time is being expended to get them to grocery store so that cost savings is passed on to you. (e.g., stuff grown in the northern rivers, shipped to sydney, packaged and then sent back to the northern rivers grocery stores for sale .... what a waste!).  when we lived in the blue mountians we had markets .... but they were full of too much craft stuff.  so i really avoided them.  what i wanted was a pure farmers market.  and woa!  they abound aplenty here!

saturday morning i went to the farmers market at kyogle.  not a huge market .... but certainly full of produce.  i walked away with enough fruit and veg to get us by for the week, and so much cheaper than in the city!  and a few treats to boot!  blue berries and macadamia nuts (i feel a tart coming on!), gonna even try a few tamarillo's!  woohoo!

as i cut the veg up ... i felt really good that i was supporting the local economy here in our area.  helping the farmers by cutting out the middle man.  and on top of that i was doing what was right for our family.  instead of having a bag of beans that have traveled from timbuktu and back again and will go off in a week ... these veg will last .... truly!  they were just picked!

oh .... and what did we have for dinner?  sorry .... forgot to take a picture.

lightly crumbed local snapper with lime juice

warm wilted spinach, two bean salad

with walnuts and parmesan, and a 
balsamic lemon/lime dressing

wish you could've joined us.  the flavours were divine!  maybe next time?  

what i had reinforced was that taking the time to go to a farmers market rather than a grocery store provided me with fresh, cheaper food than i would find anywhere else.  i wonder what farmers markets are in your area?