4gsQALwxQNqDA6iH+PLycw.jpg — Brighton Farmer’s Market with Bobo!

Clean Eating is not a diet, quick fix or a trend. It is simply a mindset and eating more whole foods made with real ingredients and avoiding/reducing unhealthy addictive foods. Eating Clean can help you loose weight, increase energy, avoid medication, prevent disease and boost overall health. Local foods found at farmer’s markets are super “clean” meaning they are not processed, refined. sprayed with pesticide or loaded with chemicals and preservatives. This makes the farmer’s market the healthiest and happiest place for a clean eater (and really for all of us).

We are so lucky to live in an area full of farm markets selling locally grown fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, cheese, honey and countless other foods and beverages. Whenever possible, I buy local and seasonal foods. In fact, going to farm markets is one of my favorite activities (alone and with my family and new puppy). Besides the healthy foods, it’s a true sense of community, social, fun and a real happening. Especially this time of year, there are tons of fun special offerings such as hayrides, live music, food tasting, kid’s activities and best of all fresh cider and donuts (not so healthy but worth it).

Here are more reasons why I love supporting local farm markets:

ri03gyaOT+eeR446ph7p1Q.jpg — Fisher Hill Farm

Helping me pick out Brussels sprouts for dinner. Fisher Hill Farm at the Brighton’s Farmer’s Market. Great variety!

It’s Clean, healthier and more delicious. It is the real deal. Everything is just picked or we pick our own. When produce is picked ripe, it is tastier and filled with more nutrients. Supermarket produce is often picked early, artificially ripened and transported across the country, and stored in distribution centers for days, sometimes even weeks.
It’s safer. Buying farm to table helps to eliminate food contamination.
Know your farmer, know your food. Eating local allows me to have knowledge and control over where my food comes from. I love making my rounds each week and connecting with the people growing my food on a personal level and understanding where and how it is grown. How amazing is it to learn from Stacy of Eaton farms about what flowers to buy for my garden and which apples are best this season, to speak to Butch of B&C Christ Farms about the difference between their beautiful green, white and purple cauliflowers, or to be picking berries at Mendon Acres Farm while chatting to farmer’s Doug’s wife Anne and his two daughters. I could go on and on. The stories that come from these interactions make my relationship with food so much more interesting and rewarding. I am lucky to have found a group of farm’s/farmer’s markets that I love, visit and buy from frequently (see my favorites under photos and below).
It’s more economical and I am supporting my local community.
It’s better for the environment. Less money and energy to transport and store the produce.
There is no better way to get your children involved in eating healthy than getting them engaged in the process. It’s a great hands-on way to teach (without teaching) the importance of healthy eating, supporting local farmers and doing good for the environment. My kids sample new foods and literally help “pick” what fruits and vegetables they want to eat, have relationships with the growers, understand the process and even help out!