Eating Local & Sustainable

We do our best to eat with the seasons, but there are a few things we do that aren't necessarily mainstream so I thought I'd share.

Growing Our Own
It was always important to us to have land. We own 1.22 acres in a suburban area near to cities and surrounded by farmland. We are not -by far- avid gardeners, but you'll find that gardens tend to succeed with very little help. We buy organic plants/seeds when we can and we don't weed nearly as often as we should. We also have a variety of fruit trees around the property and our neighbor has a small orchard so lots of that produce to go around. Our gardens are lined with railroad ties (which we order from the local farmstore and have delivered) We live in PA-zone 6.

Things that grow super easily:

• Herbs: my strategy with the herb garden is fill it with so much stuff that the weeds don't really have a chance. It works fairly well and we weed it about 2 times a year: spring and midsummer. I don't like to weed in the fall because i find the overgrowth helps protect the plants from snow and what dies is much easier to rip out dead than when it was alive. Most herbs also get gorgeous flowers which bees love and helps to keep the pollination strong in your yard. Our herb garden contains sage(indigo flowers), pineapple sage(red flowers), tarragon(yellow flowers), a variety of basil (purple flowers), lemon verbena, lemon balm(white), mint(white and purple), lemongrass, cilantro, thyme(purple), oregano, garlic and chives(white flowers). I keep strawberries in the middle(which helps keeps the birds off!) and my lemongrass in the strawberries (so i don't mistake it for a weed). Most herbs come back year after year! We also plant parsley with our butterfly bushes because butterflies love it!
• Vegetables: Small plants generally survive better than seeds planted directly in the ground. We grow squash, zucchini, sugar peas, brussel sprouts, asparagus, and lots of tomatoes every year. We sometimes grow potatoes, onions, spinach, kale (i actually had a kale plant come back...),cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkins, melons, sweet corn, turnips, beets, greenbeans, cucumbers, and carrots, but as they require replanting each year i don't always plant the same things :) The plants mentioned at the beginning are my never fails, and some of them don't even need to be replanted each year. My sister grows swiss chard and hops (for beer!) in addition to everything we grow.
• Fruit: We are fortunate to have a lot of land but even a little land can hold a tree or two. We have a peaches, nectarines, plums, asian pears, cherries, figs, black walnuts, and honeycrisp apples. We also have blackberries and blueberries. Most fruit trees grow to be about 8-10 feet tall and need about 10feet spacing from one tree to another. The first year we had some issues with nourishment- which we remedied by sprinkling epsom salt(magnesium stearate-NOT table salt) at the bases in the spring. We have owned our home for 3 summers and we have a steady stream of peaches, nectarines, pears, and apples and hope to have our plums, figs, and cherries next year. Fruit trees grow very fast. :) Our neighbor's orchard offers us a variety of plums, apples, pears, english walnuts, and raspberries and also allows us to purchase one tree where you would otherwise need pollinators. One of our little chuckles is that we keep a potted lemon tree. It has to be kept indoors in wintertime, but the flowers smell delightful and we get a few lemons each year. Most of our trees were around 5 feet tall when purchased and produced fruit by the second year.

CSA-Crop Share Arrangement

This was our first year participating in a crop share. In most crop shares, you contribute a set amount of money to help a farm kickstart their planting season and you receive a box of seasonal produce from the farm each week for ~5-6months. It comes out to ~$20/box and is always local, seasonal, sustainable. Since we were participating this year, i didn't plant any leafy greens because as long as they're in season, they're in the box. 

Farm-to-Table Restaurants
If you are fortunate enough to live close to a city, farm-to-table restaurants are catching on quickly. They source locally, plan menus seasonally, and are often paleo friendly. Here in Central Pennsylvania we have found a smattering of great farm-to-table restaurants in lancaster and harrisburg. We like John J. Jeffries, Pour on Prince, Home 231, Smoke, and new ones are opening in our area this fall!