Local Produce, Organic Food

In his Earth Day 2008 sermon, Stephen Sinclair raised our awareness of the ethical issues surrounding the flower business and again reminded us of the importance of buying locally grown flowers, food and other consumables whenever possible. Here are some local resources:

Farmhouse Flowers in Brookeville, who "grow cut flowers year round. We grow a large assortment of annual, perennial and herb plants that we sell at farmers' markets in the spring and summer [including the Rockville Farmers Market listed below]. We also grow Amaryllis, Paperwhites, Cyclamen, and Christmas Cactus that are sold at the Kensington, MD and Dupont Circle Farmers Markets during the winter season."

My Organic Market in Rockville, with "11,000 sq ft of high quality organic foods and health products" and a local bakery on premises.

Whole Foods, also in Rockville, carries locally grown produce and flowers that include a mix of "certified organic, Veriflora certified and Whole Trade Guarantee products, certified by Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade." Check the label to see what you're getting.

Rockville Farmers Market, on Saturdays and Wednesdays from mid-May through late October, and again the weekend before Thanksgiving. On Wednesdays, you can listen to live local music as you shop too.

Jehovah Jireh Farm in Dickerson, a local source for delicious, pasture-raised chickens, turkeys and lamb, and fresh brown eggs. In addition to pasture, the poultry are fed certified organic feed and NO antibiotics, chemical wormers, hormones, vaccines, or synthetic vitamins. The eggs are available at My Organic Market, listed above.

Here's the location of some other farms and farmers markets in Montgomery County.

Need to send flowers to someone far away? You can use OrganicBouquet.com, the "market leader in organic flowers. Our flowers are available online and in some of your favorite natural food stores, including Whole Foods Markets nationwide." Read about them here. Another online supplier of organic bouquets is California Organic Flowers.

Another website mentioned by Stephen in his sermon is localharvest.org. Here is their map and list of participating area farms, restaurants, and groceries around Montgomery County.

If you know of other sources for local and organic produce in our area, please send us a note so we can update this page!

Seeds, Community Gardens and a book about one family's eat-local experiment

In her Nov 18, 2007 sermon, Reverend Strauss mentioned several things to consider as we decide what to eat and where to get it. One of those was the opportunity to grow vegetables from heirloom seeds, which offer a richness in genetic diversity and a range of colors, textures, shapes, and flavors not found in commercial produce and seeds. One source of these seeds is the Seed Savers Yearbook, available from Seed Savers Exchange. Another idea is to participate in Community-Supported Agriculture. She also mentioned Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle, an inspirational story of the Kingsolvers' attempt to be "locavores," eating exclusively home- and locally-grown food for a year.