Surterre Green Tip: It's a Mouthful

Many of us most likely do not think about where or how our food is grown, or what kind of journey it took to reach our supermarkets as we tuck into dinner, but the average American meal travels a whopping 1,500 miles before it reaches our plate! From Orange County, you could drive to San Francisco and back about three and a half times, or drive all the way to Houston, Texas! This means that your meal is not only running up huge costs to the environment with additional unnecessary pollution and consumption, it also means that the "fresh" produce you are eating really isn't so fresh after all.

One of the best things you can do for the environment, as well as for your health and the local economy is buy your produce locally directly from the farmer. The growing season is upon us, which means that the weekend farmers market's which occur all over Orange County will be chocked full of bountiful and delicious organic produce freshly plucked by the same people who sell it to you. In addition to supplementing the nutritional benefits of small farm grown organic food into your diet, organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than the conventional dirt, which is often rife with pesticides, that can be found in many mass farms.

Also, (as if you weren't sold already), the majority of the farmer's and vendor's offer free samples, so a leisurely morning stroll though the market could yield one with not only delicious victual's for the week ahead, but also a delectable breakfast.

Click here to find a Southern California farmer's market location nearest you, or visit www.orangecounty.net/html/shop-produce.html.