#EatLocal is more than a catch phrase. It’s our reason for being! And with that said, it can be pretty tricky to find local produce this time of year. There’s a reason local farmers’ markets close down and traditional single source CSAs don’t last throughout the winter. Known as the hunger gap, this it the time when weather makes it hard for our farmers to grow enough food for us to live off of.
Having said that, we address this issue through crop planning, by planning alongside our farmers to fill these gaps based on their specific locations and growing seasons.
That’s why in the dead of winter, we’re able to offer local lettuces, potatoes, carrots, kale, chard, mushrooms, bok choy, radishes, turnips, spinach, herbs, peas, grits, polenta, and cornmeal.
Even still, many of our favorite fruits grow in warmer climates, or some, like apples, don’t do well growing organically in Georgia at all.
So another way we solve for the “hunger gap” is when our amazing farmers don’t have an item we’re looking to carry, we work with a few stellar distributor partners to bring those items in, always certified organic, and as local as possible. Even with these non-local items, 80% of the produce we buy throughout the year is from farms located, on average, 67 miles from Atlanta, narrowing the USDA’s definition of local by over 300 miles. We love transparency, and believe there is power in knowing your source, so if you ever have questions about where something in your basket was grown, don’t hesitate to reach out.
