It's the first day of October, and clouds seem to have descended upon the Boston Harbor, lining the boardwalk in slick, white puffs. However, pedestrians who venture closer to the foggy vista realize that those shiny clouds are actually the tents of the second annual Boston Local Food Festival.
The crowd includes a healthy mix of flannel shirts and fresh?pressed khakis, nose rings and baby strollers; all of Boston's sub?cultures have gathered together for one simple reason: food. Real food, that is - nothing processed, no unpronounceable ingredients and certainly nothing frozen (with the exception of homemade, locally produced ice cream).
This fete shows the local food movement at its finest. With booths ranging from organic dog food to a live cooking demonstration of exotic poultry, there's something for every foodie.
Locavores are benefiting both themselves and the environment by shopping close to home. According to the Independent Business Alliance, $45 of every $100 dollars spent at a locally owned business stays in the wallet of the community, as opposed to $13 when shopping at a national chain store. Furthermore, most non?locally grown food has to travel an average of 1,500 miles from a farm, emitting greenhouse gases for transport and freezing along the way - never mind the nutritional value that is lost from the food being in cold storage for weeks.
However, everyone needs to eat, and not everyone has the time to visit various farmers' markets to find weekly necessities. The festival featured companies like Dig It Local, a self?described "service that allows you to order fresh local food from area farmers and food producers and have it delivered to you at work."
Dig It Local works with local farmers' market vendors to essentially bring their markets online. On Digitlocal.com, the user can browse through a market's available items in advance, learn about where the food is coming from and order products. Come market day, Dig It Local collects the orders from vendors and delivers them to clients' workplaces.
Another organization, Green City Growers, is also making sure people have no excuse for not shopping locally. By transforming vacant lots in the Dorchester area into urban farms, the group is creating jobs, providing access to healthy and affordable food in an urban area and addressing food security issues by increasing local agricultural production capacity.
These modern updates to the agriculture field are transforming the local food and service industry. Of course, traditional farmers in overalls still stand behind these movements.
Take Jennifer Friedrich, founder of The Edible Yard, an umbrella organization that includes five ongoing farm projects throughout New England and Miami. One of these projects, the Holmes Cranberry Farm in Plymouth, Mass., is a certified organic farm that offers cranberry picking in?season and online ordering. Friedrich told the Daily that the Boston Local Food Festival is a major way to gain exposure and clients.
One of Friedrich's saleswomen said the biggest obstacles the farm faced from being a small, local food producer included "finding retailers to distribute to," and, of course, "the actual harvesting of the cranberries."
Most of the products at the Boston Local Food Festival are also sold in retail: Find some in Whole Foods, Dave's Fresh Pasta, Flatbread Company and Kickass Cupcakes. At the latter, try Spindrift, a natural soda made with only fresh?squeezed fruits and sparkling water. The cranberries in their Cranberry Raspberry flavor? Picked out of the marsh last week.
Not only is the Local Food Festival free admission, zero?waste and absolutely delicious, but also some locally sourced dishes cost an absurdly affordable $5 or less. No one should miss this event next October - locavore or not, how could anyone pass up the chance to support farmers, the community and themselves?
