Guess I'll start off like my fellow posters below and give a little intro: My name is Lisa and I live in the 'burbs of Boston, near the NH border. I've been interested in local foods for a few years now, more in an "it tastes good and I can actually meet the farmer" way than a "I'm saving the planet and I want to get back to the land" way. I know we all have different ways of coming at this, so if that's your angle, that's cool with me. It's also good for The Boy (age 9) and The Girl (age 5) to see animals and realize they're not pets (!), know that they can live on food grown and produced very close to home, and see the sweat on the farmers' brow so that they can thank them for what they produce.
I find that people are so surprised when I tell them I belong to a CSA (Bear Hill Farm in Tyngsboro, MA). Of course, first I have to tell them what the heck a CSA is, but after that, they have a few specific reactions: "Why in the world would you drive anywhere else but Market Basket for vegetables?" "How much more expensive is it?" and "Geez, you don't strike me as the crunchy granola type." I like that last one the best.
Guess I do a lot of thinking about what people eat, what constitutes "cooking" these days, and where exactly the food comes from. I've read all the books--the Pollan, the Bittman, the Kingsolver, the Kurlansky. I also have to admit that I HATE gardening, a fact I learned only after planting a large garden after moving into a suburban house with a big backyard. Sadly, I didn't inherit either my dad's green thumb or his ability to spend literally all day outside with his "crops." But I've been staying at home for almost 8 years now, so I've had the time to cruise around and see our local offerings.
My two closest friends out here in the country have gotten into vegetable gardening in a very big way in the past few years, canning and pickling and the whole nine yards. It's really been a big part of their free time (yes, I'm doing air quotes in my head as I type those last 2 words). At least I was able to teach the two of them how to make cheese recently--that way I got to enter their world of food preservation...
Anyway, I'm looking forward to actually reporting on my "field trips," getting interesting tips, and generally gabbing about my favorite subject. Thanks to WhatACard and Julie for the invite.