Local Eating - Composting and Starting a Garden!

Spring is in the air!  Does it make you want to get outside and garden?  It's pretty easy to grow at least a few veggies in your own yard, on your balcony or even on your windowsill.

Last year, we grew tomatoes, peppers and basil.  Our peppers never made it...too much rain?  But we enjoyed lots of yummy tomatoes and even had plenty to share with friends!  This year I'd like to try some new veggies like lettuce, carrots, zucchini...and the kids want to try watermelon!  If you are experienced with any of these and have tips to share, please do!  We have a compost pile and our tomatoes really loved the compost...plus I fed them each a banana peel when I planted them! :)

Even if you don't want to have your own garden, there are probably local choices you can make.  Here's a quick article from Yes! magazine, but while you're there, you might find some other interesting articles on issues you care about:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/8-ways-to-join-the-local-food-movement-shop-outside-of-supermarkets

Last year our family joined a local CSA and picked up veggies once/week.  We loved it, especially when the fresh NJ corn was in season!  It was a wonderful experience, especially for my 3 sons.  They LOVED going to the farm each week!  Sometimes we would get to go cut sunflowers to take home and sometimes we could pick beans.  We got tons of heirloom tomatoes...very interesting varieties that I never would have seen if we hadn't joined the CSA.  Together we learned about some new veggies that I had never cooked before.  We ate acorn squash for the first time and had a few fresh bitter greens that we never quite figured out.  How nice it would have been for someone like Jamie Oliver to teach me about some of those strange-looking veggies I encountered - but that was part of the adventure!

Do you have a garden?  Belong to a CSA?  What ways have you found to eat local?  Thanks for sharing!