http://forsythwoman.com

By Linda Weber

Why buy local? Produce is fresher than food harvested before it’s ripe, shipped from another part of the country or the world, stored at a wholesale depot, and then transported to a store. It also requires less fossil fuel (which pollutes the environment and adds to food cost) to grow and deliver. Buying locally also enables small farms, which usually raise a diversified crop, to survive in the face of the monocrop agro-business. And when you buy eggs, dairy, meat, or produce from a local supplier, you can find out whether chemical fertilizers or feed are used and whether the animals are confined or left to roam free. But the most convincing argument of all? The food tastes great! Here are a few places where you can stock up on locally produced ingredients.

Krankies Farmers Market
Patterson Avenue between  Third and Fourth Streets
Tuesdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mid-April through November

Market organizers visit area farms, searching out producers who treat animals humanely, who do not feed them hormones, and who use natural fertilizer and pest-control methods. Vendors sell freshly picked fruits and veggies, fresh goat and cow’s milk cheeses, and a variety of other products. Grace Meadow Farm offers beef, chicken, and eggs; Simple Kneads purveys freshly baked organic bread; and Sanders Ridge Vineyard pours Yadkinville wines.

Reynolda Farm Market
1206 Reynolda Road
Monday-Saturday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. year-round

The name Reynolda Farm Market isn’t just for show. Catherine Lassiter and her co-owners are serious about buying as much sustainably, responsibly raised food from local producers as possible. She raves about the rich Homeland Creamery milk, ice cream, and butter the market carries, and shows me a picture on the wall of a flock of free-range Ward’s Happy Chickens in McLeansville, whose eggs chill in the refrigerator case right in front of me.

Mostly Local
6321 Shallowford Road, Lewisville
Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturday 8-5, Sunday 11-3

Owner Tom Raif sells produce, meat, dairy products, and bread from local producers, mostly from Forsyth County. Personally, I’m hooked on the sunset-colored yolks in the eggs Lewisville resident Chris Blocker brings in regularly. I love knowing his chickens are roaming the neighborhood just a couple of miles from where I purchase (and eat) their eggs. All I need now is the sausage supplied by a farm in Wallburg, peach butter made especially for Mostly Local, and stone-ground grits from Booneville to round out the perfect breakfast.

Whole Foods
41 Miller Street
Monday-Sunday 8am-9pm

Even though I shop regularly at Whole Foods, I hadn’t really noticed how many local products they carry until Jarrett Oliveri, Marketing Team Leader, pointed out dozens all over the store. They stock Black River Organics produce, Baldwin Farms’ grass-fed beef, Carolina Catfish, dairy products from Chapel Hill Creamery, and a host of others. In season, up to 30 percent of their produce may come from local sources, which is pretty remarkable for a national chain. In fact, an entire section of the Whole Foods website is devoted to their commitment to work with local producers, which they consider part of their mission.

Where else to buy local? Dixie Fairgrounds Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and the Downtown  Farmers Market on Tuesday mornings.