Yes, you probably know where you purchased it. But do you know where it was before it entered that store? Some people do, but many people do not. I am not even sure if the majority of people think about these things. But I do. These are questions that I ponder a lot. After seeing Food, Inc. last month, I knew I needed to know these answers for the food in my house.

A few short years ago, I shopped by price point only. We were on a tight budget and staying within that budget was essential. But then, the budget got looser and the fears got greater, so I started to pay more attention. Do you remember the recalls of spinach and other tainted foods? They scared me. A lot. So, I researched my local foodshed. It was hard because a few years ago there weren’t as many resources to help with this task. But it was worth it. Today, I am lucky to know of local bloggers like Sophie at Late Bloomer’s Farm, who has put together a great foodshed resource for my area.

Last summer, I tried my hand at growing our own food and had reasonable success. This summer, we will do it again. Bigger and better. Will and I have been talking about what we will grow (he’s requesting watermelon-that will be interesting). I am debating between ordering seeds and buying starter plants … I am just not sure which way we’ll go. But either way, we will be growing more this summer.

The more I learn, the more passionate I am about eating local food bought from local places. We have a wonderful array of farms around here. With minimal effort, we can have delightful grassfed beef from a few towns over, mouthwatering smoked cheddar from New York and other wonderful foods. Yes, I spend more on food now than ever. Yes, I still go to the grocery store and Trader Joe’s. But I also feel good about what we eat and worry less.

How do you feel about eating local? To me, it encompasses so much – being gentler on the environment, eating well, truly knowing my food (and those that grow it).

I had the most interesting conversation with someone from Fine Cooking Magazine on Twitter over the past few days about making the mental shift to a local-mindedness. I mentioned how overwhelming it was to make the actual shift to doing after I made the mental shift. And it really was. Eating locally is a huge commitment and one that takes a full rewriting of all the food philosophies you have inherited through your upbringing. Anyway, my Fine Cooking friend pointed out that what it comes down to isn’t making a total change overnight, but rather making whatever change you can today.

It’s so true.

10 Small Earth-Friendly Changes You Could Make Today

1. Reuse your leftovers. I’ve never been a huge fan of eating leftovers, but the truth is that with a bit of ingenuity, you can transform last night’s dinner into a whole new dish tonight. Read about some of my suggestions for Double-Duty Dinners on SheKnows.
2. Use everything. When you squeeze a lemon or an orange, what do you do with the peel? Unless you need it for zest right away, you probably toss it. Don’t! That peel makes a great flavoring for food in the form of zest. Simply toss it in a resealable bag or container and freeze it until you are ready to use it.
3. Stick a reusable bag in your purse and/or car. When I first started using reusable bags, I forgot them half the time. Now, I always carry one with me in my purse. Even if I forget my other bags, I can at least trade out one plastic bag for the reusable one. Every bit counts.
4. Grow herbs. Have a sunny windowsill? Stick a pretty pot up there and start growing an herb or two. Once the plant gets to be a good size, you won’t believe how easy it is to constantly have fresh herbs at your fingertips.
5. Ask your neighbor if they need anything at the store. Have you ever had a moment where you ran out of one little but extremely important food item and had to run to the store for just that? Wouldn’t it have been awesome if your neighbor called just then to ask if you needed something? Do it. Start the trend. If you are going, why not save someone else a trip?
6. Write a shopping list. If you write down what you need and buy only those items, you will purchase less, save more and prevent overbuying.
7. Write that shopping list on your smartphone. Yes, saving even one sheet of paper matters.
8. Check Local Harvest’s website. Do you know where your local farms are? What they sell? Just look! Who knows, you might even be inspired to head on over.
9. Read the labels. You could be walking right past local sausage and not know it. If you see an unfamiliar label, take 10 seconds and read the packaging. Who knows, your local market could be stocking all sorts of local goodies.
10. Go natural. Supermarkets are catching on to the idea that people want food that is free from antibiotics, growth hormones and the like. Look for items that are labeled to be free from these things and buy them.

Some foods you grow up with, so they naturally become a part of your adult eating repertoire. Other foods you discover as an adult and fall in love with. Flank steak falls decidedly into the second category for me.

Honestly, I hadn’t even heard of flank steak until a few years ago when I spied it on the meal plan at a weight-loss site that I frequented. Having never heard of it, it piqued my interest, so I kept my eye open for it. When I finally found it at Costco, I bought some to try. I am so glad that I did–the whole family loves it.

Flank steak is a lean meat, which is really good if you are watching your weight or fat intake. It’s also naturally boneless. According to The Food Lover’s Companion (Deluxe Edition), flank steak comes from the lower hindquarters of a cow. And broiling? That’s the usual method of cooking (and what this recipe uses).

What I love about this recipe is that it makes a flavorful flank steak that can easily feed my family for two meals. The marinade imparts a nice tang with accents of garlic and herbs. Be sure to buy about two pounds if you want to do that too — so that you have enough. Paired with macaroni and cheese, some corn and a salad, this is warming and comforting. But, served with roasted broccoli and rice, it’s a whole other meal. Love that.

Do you have a food favorite that you discovered as an adult? Share!

Marinated Flank Steak
serves 8 (or two meals for 4)

3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 flank steak (roughly 1 3/4 – 2 1/4 lbs)
Kosher salt

Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, parsley, garlic and oregano. Pour into a 9×13 baking dish. Lay the flank steak on the marinade and let sit for 2-3 hours, flipping once.

Remove flank steak from the marinade and bloat gently with a paper towel. Place on a broiler pan and sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Broil on high for 4-6 minutes per side, until desired tenderness. You want it to be cooked to medium, at most.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes before carving. When you do, slice into thin strips against the grain. If desired, sprinkle with sea salt before serving.

Leftovers can be used on top of salads, in wraps or served over rice.

What I’m Cooking With: A wire whisk, small metal bowl, Pyrex baking dish, a broiler pan from Ikea

Eating local in the winter has always been an enigma to me. Where do you find local produce during the New England winter? I really let snow, harsh temperatures and a lack of understanding come between my family and the tastiest local foods.

But earlier this summer, I had an epiphany — it’s not about finding local food, it’s about preparing to have local food all year. It take more effort, more foresight and more work to eat locally all year … but it’s so worth it.

That’s why I was happy thrilled to buy a big crate of tomatoes at the farmer’s market this weekend. They weren’t the prettiest fruits, but they were fresh, local and ready to be processed. I spent the weekend, peeling, seeding, processing and cooking the tomatoes into a garden marinara and tomato paste using recipes from Preserving Summer’s Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow. I bought this book several years ago when I first developed an interest in canning. At the time, I didn’t really like the broadness of it and I ended up buying another book. However, I’ve grown to love it. The recipes are reliable and you can find a little of everything in it. Who knew I would eventually want to can more than just jam?

Anyway, back to the tomatoes.

Twelve half-pints of marinara and four cups of paste later, we are set for the next couple of months — on pasta, at least. But these are joining the Roasted Herbed Carrots and frozen strawberries, as well as the four half-pints of strawberry jam just waiting to be eaten. I have also roasted a lot of tomatoes.

It hasn’t been a perfect haul. We will still need other veggies to help us make it through the dreary doldrums of winter, but when it starts to get to be too much, I need only toss some roasted tomatoes from the freezer with a little olive oil and pasta to feel refreshed.

Do you do any putting up for winter?

Mmm. That is a locally grown and butchered Delmonico steak, hot off the grill. The cow is from a farm run by a family with a young child and I buy it directly from the mom at the farmers market. I. Love. That.

Frankly, I don’t write about eating locally raised and grown food nearly as often as I should. It’s something that I am pretty passionate about and really take to heart. Each week, I shop at at least one, often two, farmers markets. In the summertime, I rarely buy anything at the grocery store.

There are so many reasons I support eating locally. For one, the food just tastes better. Produce in the grocery store is often grown thousands of miles away, picked before it’s peak and flown in. That’s why you will see rows of green bananas and piles of hard plums. You aren’t supposed to pick these things before they naturally ripen, but that is what happens. As a result, we pay for it in taste.

By eating locally, I am also buying from growers who drive mere miles to sell their meats, vegetables, fruits and herbs. It’s less impact on the environment. Furthermore, instead of handing over my dollars to a mega-market with headquarters in parts far away, the people who receive my money are literally right in front of me. My local economy can’t avoid being helped by that.

But I have to admit, it’s a hard road to eating locally for most meals. You need to know where to buy staples, where to locate specific needs and more. My progress as a local eater — and I am far from perfect at it — has been years in the making.

A few years ago, I really wanted to transform my family’s eating habits and attempt an all-local diet. I searched and made notes about where to find certain foods, restaurants that cooked with local ingredients and markets that were family owned and run locally. The one problem I had was locating local, small producers of meat.

To be fair, I found a local bacon, that is manufactured in nearby Torrington, Connecticut. It’s called Nodine’s Apple Smoke Flavored Bacon and is sold in some local markets like Caraluzzi’s. It’s among my very favorite varieties ever — a thick cut, hearty and meaty bacon that is packed with flavor. It’s crispy bliss.

But in terms of beef, chicken, pork and other meats, I came up short.

Then, earlier this summer, I happened upon a fellow Connecticut food blogger’s site, Late Bloomers Farm. It was one of those life changing finds where you are both awestuck and excited to have found exactly what you were searching for. It was like an answer to my local-eating prayers. On the site is a list of local purveyors, farms, farmers markets and more. It made up where my searching via Google and Local Harvest failed.

Since then, I have found several other Connecticut food and life bloggers like Living in a Local Zone and Local Food Rocks. (Psst! I have a list in progress on my Examiner page — did I mention that I am the Danbury Food Examiner too? I started about a month ago.)

After learning about Ox Hollow Farm on the aforementioned Late Bloomers Farm, I tracked down their booth at the Bethel Farmers Market. After one dinner of beef kabobs with their meat, I was hooked. And anyone who eats kabobs knows that the meat is notoriously tough. But it wasn’t true of this meat. Grilled up with a little barbecue sauce (which I brushed on at the very end of cooking), it was tender and juicy. Totally craveworthy.

I’ve since been making my way through their other cuts. The sweet Italian sausage, which I had a bite of at the market, was enough to make you swoon — and I rarely eat sausage. And their Delmonico steak was probably the best steak I have ever eaten. Anywhere. Bar none. The heavily marbling and thick cut grilled up to perfection, and the resulting meat was so smooth, tender, juicy and flavorful. I could be ultra-cliche and say that it was like budda … and I wouldn’t be just saying it.

Do you eat local? Why do you do it?

One of my goals for this year is to extend our local eating for as long into the winter as we can. I’ve done this hear and there in the past, putting up jams and relishes and freezing pestos and sauces, but this year I want a more comprehensive effort. As fruits and vegetables hit their peak, the kids and I will be gathering them, making some for the family to eat now and processing the rest to be stored for the winter months. First up: strawberries.

After picking strawberries last weekend, I quickly set about to use all the berries we brought home. When you pick as much as I did (somewhere between 10-12 lbs of berries … mmmm!), you have to do something with them quickly so that they don’t go to waste.

I immediately started work on jam for the winter (and a little for the summer too), which is a two-day process for my favorite canned version. About 12 cups of strawberries went into jam making using two recipes — four half-pints of my favorite fresh strawberry jam recipe and about a cup of fresh strawberry jam using a Cooking Light recipe. The Cooking Light recipe cooked way faster than it was supposed to, so that came out much thicker than I anticipated. But it’s still very tasty.

Next came some strawberry sauce, which we’ve been eating on pancakes and waffles all week. In fact, the picture above is the kids eating waffles with strawberry sauce on the front porch. Mmm.

Finally, I froze about eight cups of berries for the winter months. Locally grown strawberries taste so much better than the ones you buy in the store, so freezing local berries means that we can have fantastic tasting berries all year wrong … and not settle for what’s available. At first blush, I questioned whether this would be enough berries to last through the winter — and truth be told, I am still playing with the idea of picking some more — but I realized that we will also be storing peaches, apples, raspberries, blueberries and more (if all goes according to plan!), so we will have a big variety to eat from and don’t necessarily need tons of one type of fruit.

What do you think? Would you store more than eight cups of strawberries, given the opportunity?

How to Freeze Fresh Strawberries

1. Wash and hull the strawberries.

2. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper, making sure that the waxy side is facing up. Place the strawberries hulled side down on the baking sheet in a single layer. Make sure that the berries don’t touch.

3. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and let freeze overnight. Transfer frozen berries to a resealable plastic bag and return to the freezer for storage. Make sure to label the bag with the date and contents.

Recipes for Fresh Strawberries

• Strawberries and Cream Whole Wheat Crepes at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Whipped Strawberry Cream at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Kiwi Fool at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Sauce at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette at FitSugar
• Fresh Strawberry and Ricotta Tart at Serious Eats
• Joan Ohm’s Fresh Strawberry Pie at Culinate
• Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Centers at Coconut & Lime
• Fresh Strawberry Scones at The Way the Cookie Crumbles
• Fresh Strawberry Tartlets at The Providence Journal

The kids and I and two of my friends went strawberry picking yesterday afternoon. So what that it was raining? So what that the skies clued us in that this was a rain that wasn’t going to just pass … It just didn’t matter. We all wanted the berries and nothing was standing in our way.

In past years, the coming of rain would have  (and did) scared my friends and I away from the strawberry fields. But perhaps we are just older and wiser now. Or maybe we were just too fixated on our plans. Whatever the case, when two of my friends arrived from New York on Saturday afternoon, it didn’t matter a smidge that it was starting to drizzle. We packed into the car and headed to Jones Family Farm, a local pick-your-own farm.

When we arrived, we found that we weren’t the only crazy folks taking to the fields for some speed picking (seriously, how else would you do it in the rain?). I can’t tell you exactly how much we picked, but I can tell you that the big, red, rosy berries have the sweetest, juiciest, most luscious flesh … They are beauties.

Have you picked this year? If you are in the northeast, hurry to the fields! Strawberry picking has but a short, short season here of just a few weeks and we are about a week and a half into it already, so time is of the essence. And if you go, remember to pick enough berries to process into all sorts of delicious jams, pies, cakes and other delights. They are just too good to pass up (and seriously, nothing you will ever buy in a grocery store can compare.)

I’ve met the chicken that laid the egg I had for this lunch. I know the two farmers who grew the radishes and the lettuce too. That’s local.

Shawn looked at me a little funny when I suggested a nice mixed green salad (red leaf lettuce from Shortt’s Farm and Garden Center in Sandy Hook and romaine lettuce from Smith’s Acres in Niantic) with maple roasted bacon (store bought bacon, Trader Joe’s Vermont Maple Syrup) and a poached egg (Shortt’s). He declined.

So, I threw a steak on the grill for him . . . and still served him the salad, minus the egg plus the meat. He said it was a great lunch.

But, he really missed out. Turns out that the warm poached egg with a nice runny yolk, is great on the greens with the sweet bacon and a drizzle of Italian dressing. Mmm.

I threw in the radishes for good measure — Jim Shortt, who in the interest of full disclosure is my cousin’s husband, said he’d never had cooked radishes. I said that he must try them. Now. And he did, since I ran some over to him . . . Wonder what he thought?

Want to try this yourself? Simply wash two cups of mixed lettuce greens per person and plate. Top with maple roasted bacon, broken into pieces (two strips per person), radishes (about 1/2 cup, cooked), and a poached egg (or sliced steak, if you prefer). Drizzle with Italian dressing and serve.

Balsamic Sauteed Radishes
Maple Roasted Bacon
Poached Egg
Mixed Greens Salad

You might pay lip-service to liking the concept of eating locally. You might tout the availability of locally grown farm produce, fresh breads and the like. But unless you are actually going to the farmer’s market and shopping it regularly, you aren’t doing anything. And worse, it’s going to put that farmer’s market out of business.

Think I’m kidding?

Here in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, there are two farmer’s markets: the Village Farmer’s Market on Sundays and the Organic Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays. I’ve never been to the Tuesday market due to timing — it’s pretty hard to get to the 2-6 p.m. market when you work an hour away. But the Sunday market? I am a devout goer.

This year, I’ve been thrilled to see more people attending regularly. And it’s been absolutely wonderful to be able to do a good portion of my weekly shopping in the one, close, central location. I buy clams almost every week from Ed and Laurie Popadic of Pepe’s Cream of The Crop, LLC, bread and fresh mozzarella from a Norwalk-based bakery, and vegetables from Joe Smith of Smith’s Acres in Niantic. There is also a great soap maker — Goat Boy Soaps — that visits as well, and if I needed soap weekly, that would be a weekly stop too.

The problem? The vendors say that they just aren’t making enough money to justify their drives to market. Those same gas prices that are torturing anyone with a set of four wheels are going to drive vendors away from this — finally — thriving market.

That is, unless the good people of Newtown and Sandy Hook get off their hides and join me in shopping the farmer’s markets regularly. Consider this your call to action, neighbors. Get out there and buy. Buy some eggs, buy some produce, buy, buy, buy. And guess what? It goes to a person you can see, not some supermarket chain. It lets us continue to eat locally.

Think it’s too expensive? It’s not. I spend between $30 and $50 there each week and buy enough for lunches and dinners for at least one week. Plus, with the addition of eggs, it can take care of dinner too.

I will be devastated if the vendors stop coming. Last year was a tough year for the Sunday farmer’s market with just clams and a local jam and relish maker most weeks. Although I kept going, there just wasn’t much to buy. And that is sad.

Our local paper, The Newtown Bee, covered opening day of the market and talked about the plethora of vendors. Personally, I think they should be back out there, covering this story: the story of how the market can’t survive unless more people start going . . .

Pesto whole wheat penne and baked caprese salad.

Need I say more?

This photo is from last week . . . I haven’t snapped any of this week’s foods yet. Nonetheless, this was another hardy local meal — cept for the pasta, which wasn’t local. I resisted the urge to splurge on the superb fresh mozzarella and pesto again at this week’s farmer’s market. I am trying to keep it to one splurge a week — maybe that will be next week? That way, the splurges are special and don’t end up being wasted.

While inspecting the lettuce heads, I heard a familiar voice wafting through the stand. The farmer, a white-bearded man with kind eyes, was chatting with another local farmer — a woman with long sandy hair and freckles. She held a baby on her hip and laughed in the hearty, easy way she has since childhood. No, I am not making assumptions, she happens to be my cousin . . . Small town. So, of course I yelled over, “Hi, cousin!” It’s a phrase that has come into our vernacular in recent years. Her mother says it, her husband to my mother . . . just one of those things I guess.

Small town or not, it’s nice to see a sense of community forming at the farmer’s market this year that I haven’t seen in the past. The clam guy talks to the other vendors, complimenting one’s big, juicy, red tomatoes and recommending another’s delicious tarts . . . It’s nice to see.

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This week’s purchases:

2 tomatoes (plus a half dozen seconds that the farmer gave me)
1 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch Swiss chard
a handful of garlic scrapes
1 bunch radishes
about 3 cups baby spinach
1 pint strawberries
1 loaf rosemary bread
2 dozen clams

Total:$35

I originally wrote about oatmeal for Fit Fare (before I was the editor of that site) and then later sold a similar story to Associated Content. The gist? Oatmeal is so, so good for you. It’s a grain that is rich in fiber, which is great for digestion. Oprah turned me onto steel-cut oats, which are the tops for nutrition, but I am still a really big fan of rolled oats.

What’s so good about oatmeal? Well, oatmeal is rich in a type of fiber called soluble fiber. Soluble fiber isn’t digested by the body (neither is insoluble fiber) but it does turn to a jelly-like substance that binds to fatty compounds and moves things along. You know, as in out. It’s good for lowering cholesterol (including so-called “bad cholesterol” – LDL cholesterol) and also regulating blood sugar (particularly important for people with diabetes). A good resource that explains the differences between the types of fiber can be found here.

Oatmeal is also a good way to fill up in the morning if you are trying to lose weight, which I will be soon enough. But if you are like me, then you probably prefer flavored varieties to the bland canister one. Fortunately, it’s not hard to transform plain oatmeal into a flavorful delight. This recipe is great because it’s very fast and easy (particularly if you have a nifty apple corer like me . . . what an awesome purchase that was!!!).

1 cup apple cider
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cubed
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
sweetener such as honey, white sugar, brown sugar or Splenda, to taste (optional)

In a small saucepan, combine the apple cider, water, lemon juice and apple and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Add oatmeal, cinnamon and salt and stir together. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat and let sit for 3-5 minutes before serving.

Add in sweetener, if desired, just before serving (this oatmeal is sweet already, so you may not need it — Will and I like ours a little bit sweeter though).

Potential add-ins:

• raisins – add 2 tbsp-1/4 cup when oatmeal is added
• pears – substitute a pear for the apple
• strawberries – add to the water mixture or substitute for the apple
• blueberries – same as strawberries
• almonds – add 2 tbsp when oatmeal is added

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This is a pretty local dish for me. The apple, apple cider and of course water are all very local ingredients. Oatmeal falls into my exception category, so this qualifies as my Dark Days Challenge meal for last week. Click here to find out more about the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge, created by Urban Hennery.