Support Your Local Farmers at the Heritage Prairie Market
December 31, 2008
I’ve been intending to stop in and visit the Heritage Prairie Market for quite some time, but just never got around to it. It was not very high on my list of things to do since I’ve been generally skeptical about the “organic” and “local food” movements being more marketing ploys than anything else. That being said, a friend recently passed on this article from the New York Times by science writer Michael Pollan that piqued my curiosity to learn more. Since reading this article, which discusses how industrial agriculture today is not sustainable, I’ve also read two of Pollan’s books, “The Botany of Desire” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. Of the two, I preferred “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” since it went deeper into the workings of today’s industrial food chain, while the “Botany of Desire” focused more on the domestication of apples, potatoes, tulips and marijuana. Coupling this with reading James Howard Kunstler’s (yes, the same Kunstler that speaks of the “Tragedy of Suburbia” as I noted in this prior post) discussion and implications of peak oil theory in his book “The Long Emergency”, there are huge implications for agriculture and it looks like small farms and markets like Heritage Prairie Market are at the leading edge of an important and necessary shift in food production from the current industrial, high oil input based system to a much more sustainable, low input, healthier local food movement.
But I digress. Just before Christmas, I stopped in to look around and to see if I could pick up a last minute stocking stuffer for my wife. I was warmly greeted and shown around the store. My wife had previously purchased honey here, which she really enjoyed, so I thought that would be a good gift. Luckily for me, they had specially wrapped gift bottles of Black Locust and Black Raspberry honey. The color apparently varies based on the predominant vegetation near the hives. That’s Black Locust honey on the left, Black Raspberry honey on the right. (Note that this photo is several days after Christmas, and does not have the nice bows and wrapping that it came with. We’ve also used some of the Black Raspberry!).
I was pleased with the Christmas morning response to this gift. I plan to become a regular customer and encourage you to check it out for yourself. To learn more about Heritage Prairie Market, stop in at 2N308 Brundige Road, just south of Rt. 38 or check out their website.
