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First, locate your local food producers. Who are the farmers and ranchers near you? Who is producing dairy? Is there is a grain mill? If you are coastal find the fisheries. Make these people your family’s inner food circle and form relationships with them.
laufamilyfarm.com/ John and Lori Anne Lau have been providing us 100% grass-fed beef and lamb for over 20 years. They come to our local gardeners market on a schedule and have a local meet-up location through the colder months when the market is closed. We can purchase meat or fat in bulk, medium bundles, or one package at a time. We order ahead online. Lau’s meat is less expensive than the grass-fed meat at our grocery store. And they have a much wider selection. Rendering beef tallow from frozen beef fat is a quarter of the cost of buying beef tallow in the store.
Eric and Tamra Jorgensen own and operate ET Cherry Creek Farms www.etcherrycreekfarms.com offering 100% grass-fed heritage Dexter beef and Boer goat (Goat meat is called chevon). We brought their farm into our food circle recently as goat is not available in our stores here. So far our favorite is goat chops. They cook very quickly, are extremely tender and mild, and they are more cost effective than lamb chops. Tamra is at our gardeners market most weeks, and she will make weekly meet-ups off season as needed.
www.cachemeadowcreamery.com in Franklin, ID, owned and operated by Mark and Andrea Kezerian and family. They offer raw A2 milk from Jersey cows raised on grass. They have gallons and half gallons of whole and 2% milk as well as fresh and sour cream, raw and cultured butter, different yogurts, cream cheese and ice cream. They have a farm store on their farm that we visit every couple weeks in Summer and monthly in Winter. I often text Mark ahead of time to make sure he has what I’m looking for that day.
Cache Meadow Creamery milk is turned into artisan raw cheese by Rock Hill Creamery rockhillcheese.com.
gardenersmarket.org. It runs weekly from Mother’s Day weekend through mid-October, and it’s walking distance from us. In addition to crafts and fine art, there have been produce, dairy, and meat vendors as ell as artisan baked goods, locally roasted coffee, and plants. Several vendors have come over the years to offer mushrooms as well, which is a special treat in our drier state.
I don’t even remember his name. I remember his regeneratively raised uncured bacon, though! Alas, he moved to California, and we currently have no one raising regenerative pork. If no one takes it up, I may have a double secret plan to make it happen myself.
Second, locate your local bakery, mill, cafes, restaurants, etc. who are preparing the most whole, local food in the most old-fashioned way.
I mention bakery first because it is most likely you’ll find a bakery preparing baked goods in this manner. What manner is that?
All of these together is rather rare to find in one bakery. (I think there’s one in Florida.) You are looking for an artisan bakery. Start with organic sourdough. You want real, long-fermented sourdough. They will be happy to talk about it because it takes a long time to make this type of bread!
In Cache Valley, this bakery is Le Croissant www.lecroissant.co/ whose very first sentiment is sourcing local and being a community bakery. They are also often the “meet-up” location for local food producers.
Third, prepare your own meals (or have someone prepare them for you) from these local ingredients.
Pull together your food circle. It will nourish your life in many ways.