Lately I've been on a bit of a local binge - taking pride in things made in America and made in Upstate NY, and would like to try to change our habits and eat locally produced real food.

Ryan's dad's family has taken it even further and is going to try for the 100 miles in 100 days challenge. I am not sure we could go that far (Ryan wouldn't want to give up coffee - which is almost certainly not grown within 100 miles of Rochester), but we are going to try and eat as much locally and seasonally as possible this coming year, even more so than last year.

The first thing we are going to do is join a local CSA, then we are going to join a local bakery distribution.

The Small World Bakery has a program where you get bread delivered weekly for a year, all made with locally grown organic grains and flours. This way I won't have to make all the bread myself, and I know it will be made with good ingredients.

Surprisingly, flour has been very hard to find locally. Rochester is traditionally known as the Flour City because we had so many flour mills on the river, now the only place I could find local flour was this one bakery. They also sell at farmers markets around town and we frequently got their delicious loaves at our local market - now that I know they have a weekly program I can't wait to try it!

For fruits and veggies we are going to continue our home garden, as well as joining a CSA. I am sure many of you are wondering what a CSA is, and how it works?

I discovered the idea via an online cooking group I belong to; in the summer people would frequently start a thread with a subject line along the idea of: "I just got a bunch of random veggies in my CSA box, any ideas on what I can make?" I had never heard of CSA's before and so googled it. Then I got very excited and tried to sign up, but had missed the period for the summer. Now that the growing season is over I can sign up for next year.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a local farm, run by volunteers (often the members) or one main family farmer. The idea is that you pay a fee and get a share of the veggies produced on the farm. You take part in the farm itself, getting to know the farmer or even helping on farm shifts yourself, while enjoying locally grown, seasonal, and almost always organic foods. The risk and reward is divided among the community; sort of like Micro-Finance for farming. Then each week there's a distribution where the good produce is split evenly among the members. From what I understand the boxes are quite large, and more than enough for a family of two.

I always enjoy putting a face on the food I am eating, which is part of why I appreciate the Rochester Public Market and summer farmers markets so much. When you just buy mass produced $0.99 chicken, or asparagus made on a farm in Argentina so it's available all year, you lose some of connection and appreciation for what you are eating. CSA's take pride in bringing back the local nature of food and community.

There are several CSA's within the county, and I've been researching which one to join - looking at the farmers and the types of food they grow, and yes the cost of membership. I think I've decided on the Mud Creek Farm run by Erin. It's less than half an hour away and has a loyal following of people who love the food.

If you are interested in finding a CSA near you check out the Local Harvest Website. It is a great resource to find local programs.

Two more steps towards eating "real food" and supporting our local area. It's important to have an appreciation of where things come from, to understand your surroundings, and to eat well.